Tel.: 0032-2-549.07.00 Email: info@ebbk.de Tel.: 0032-2-513.64.08 Fax: 0032-2- 513.88.20 Email: 0032-2-513.88.20 Email: Joint European Office of the Local Authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony: Opinion on the Committee of the Regions' White Paper on Multilevel Governance Nine local authority associations from Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony have set up a Joint European Office in Brussels to provide almost 4 000 member towns, cities, counties and districts combined population: 27 million with organised representation vis-à-vis the European institutions. For ten years now, this Joint European Office has played a pro-active role in the European legislative process and in deliberations on EU support for the stakeholder local authorities, and, as such, has been a living example of what multilevel European governance actually means. The Joint European Office therefore welcomes the Committee of the Regions' historic move to produce its own White Paper for the very first time and to call for a rethink of the way in which the various political and administrative levels work together within the European Union. The Joint European Office feels that the White Paper could not have been published at a politically more propitious time. It comes just as the EU political system faces radical change not only in terms of its institutional arrangements and key players but also in its structure and strategy. Both Parliament and Commission are embarking on new terms of office. The Lisbon Treaty recently entered into force, with provisions supportive of the local level. Consultations are under way on the post-lisbon EU 2020 strategy and plans are afoot to reform the EU budget. The local authority associations, working through their Joint European Office and drawing on their members' experience at grassroots level in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony and on the ground in Brussels, would thus like to make the following points on the individual issues raised in the White Paper as a tangible contribution to the debate on the future shape of European multilevel governance. BAYERISCHER LANDKREISTAG Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts VERBAND DER BAYER. BEZIRKE Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts 1 EN
Building Europe in partnership Importance of local authority partnerships for EU integration In the course of European integration, the local level has taken on board the concept of building Europe in partnership, not least through the Europe-wide cross-border partnerships that have been forged between local (and regional) authorities. In this way, local authorities have played an exemplary role as mediators, conveying the European idea to the grassroots level. Despite the fact that, in the past, partnerships between European local authorities have acted as a catalyst for action, the Committee of the Regions rightly draws attention, right at the start of its White Paper, to the recent Special Eurobarometer 307 report on the public's current perception of the various political levels within the EU. Generally speaking, the local level enjoys the broadest political trust. That said, 59% of those surveyed consider that local level is not yet sufficiently taken into account in the European decisionmaking process. Regrettably, from the local perspective, that is the political reality of Europe today. Towns, cities, counties and districts: from mediators to joint decision-makers The Joint European Office of the Local Authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony therefore supports the CoR's efforts to use multilevel governance as a conduit so that, within the European integration process, the local level is no longer merely a mediator, but a broad-based player in decision-making. Subsidiarity therefore is also of paramount importance in any genuine system of European multilevel governance. The Joint European Office thus firmly believes that a partnership-based multilevel approach can only work in day-to-day political practice if, in the future of transfer of competences upstream to the EU level, prime responsibility for actual implementation is given to the local level. Not least in the sensitive area of services of general interest under Article 14 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), multilevel governance must not be used a tool to override the strict interpretation of how competences are to be shared out. 2
0032-2- 513.88.20 Email: 0032-2-513.88.20 Email: Enshrining the concept of local self-government in a charter of multilevel governance It is inadmissible to mix up the different levels of responsibility as this would run wholly counter to the spirit of local selfgovernment which is for the first time enshrined as EU primary law under Article 4 of the now-operative Lisbon treaty. To make local self-government a genuine element of constitutional arrangements across Europe and, in particular, across the different levels of government, the Joint European Office feels that an important first step would be for the Committee of the Regions to draft a charter of multilevel governance along similar lines to the Council of Europe's European charter of local self-government. Encouraging involvement in the European venture To boost overall involvement in the European venture, it is essential to draw on the local level, i.e. the level that is closest to grassroots concerns. For that to happen, however, local authorities need strong institutional representation within the European constitutional system. The CoR needs further institutional consolidation even after Lisbon The Joint European Office of the Local Authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony applauds the Committee of the Regions' achievements over the relatively short time it has been in existence as the assembly of local representatives from across the EU, and would encourage it to hold onto its vision of a European senate. The Joint European Office is also pleased that, given the comparatively high population of the local authorities it represents, demographic considerations are to carry more weight in the future allocation of CoR seats following the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty. CoR elected representatives provide an invaluable service as multipliers The prospective increase in the number of seats on the German delegation and the expected distribution of these extra seats equally between the Federal Länder and the local level will provide even greater scope for the involvement of directly elected local-level representatives in an ongoing exchange of ideas with European decision-makers. 3
Email: info@ebbk.de 0032-2- 513.88.20 Email: 0032-2-513.88.20 Email: Bearing in mind the Joint European Office's recent experience on this front (current CoR members include Dr Ulrich Maly, a city mayor from Bavaria, and Helmut Jahn, a local councillor from Baden-Württemberg), the multiplier effect of CoR membership for the local level cannot be stressed highly enough. The public's perception of Europe thus continues to be very much dependent on local players. Expanding cross-border pooling of experience to all locally elected representatives These include mayors, councillors, district council leaders and all members of local authority assemblies. Thus, the future acceptance of Europe will continue to be largely contingent on the support given to these players by the EU to pool experiences and exchange views across Member State borders. The Joint European Office therefore welcomes the preparatory workshops that the European Commission representations in the Member States have organised over the past few months in a bid to establish an Erasmus support programme for locally elected politicians. The Joint European Office will continue to support this process. Given the key role of local authority partnerships in the European venture (see above), the pooling of views and experiences between local-level administrations on the European neighbourhood policy and in the field of EU development aid is also of major importance. The White Paper is therefore right to draw attention to the network-building efforts being made by local authorities in the Mediterranean area. Macro-regional EU strategies can only be implemented with local authority involvement As the Joint European Office represents a large number of local authorities in the Danube area, mention should also be made here of the Council of Danube Cities and Regions launched in Budapest on 11 June 2009. The Joint European Office is pleased that at the entire process of drawing up an EU strategy for the Danube area has been instigated from the bottom up and from the local level in particular but notes that the practical success of that strategy is also contingent on the involvement of local authorities from the Danube area in actual implementation. 4
«««0032-2- 513.88.20 Email: 0032-2-513.88.20 Email: The White Paper calls for local bodies to devote special sessions to European integration and European policies and to involve local MEPs in the debate. A survey of the Joint European Office local authorities revealed that this is already happening on some issues at any rate (one recent instance being local-level implementation of the EU services directive), albeit mostly in larger local authorities. That said, the sluggish response from smaller local authorities in particular shows that there is still some way to go if Europe is to become a live issue everywhere. Ongoing dialogue between local councillors and MEPs from Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony Local authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony have key input to achieving the EU's overriding goals In addition, the founding of the Joint European Office in the last decade has nurtured a tradition on the part of member associations of seeking systematic dialogue with MEPs from the respective Länder, who themselves often have a wealth of experience in local politics to offer. The highpoint of this exchange of ideas so far was the meeting of representatives of all ten member associations in Strasbourg in January 2009, to which the 33 MEPs from the three Länder were invited. The survey has also revealed that the local authorities represented by the Joint European Office are actively involved in implementing the strategic goals of the European Union. Thus, for example, Bavarian, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony local authorities account for more than a third of all German participants in the Covenant of Mayors, with other local authorities of these three Länder also getting set to join. In this way, these local authorities represented by the Joint European Office are demonstrating their awareness of the shared responsibility of the local level in achieving EU climate goals in the fight against global climate change. Even more will need to be done in future to ensure that local and regional authorities of all sizes can implement these EU initiatives. Such active involvement of the local level is only possible if information is generated and provided promptly. The Joint European Office therefore welcomes the CoR's voluntary pledge to contribute to a genuine policy of devolved communication. 5
E-Mail: info@ebbk.de 0032-2- 513.88.20 E-Mail: 0032-2-513.88.20 E-Mail: The Joint European Office as information provider: a tangible contribution to a devolved EU communications strategy A presence in Brussels to make the local authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony more effective at European level Progressive networking of local authority representatives in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony The Joint European Office plays its part in this with the wide circulation of its weekly news bulletin Brüssel Aktuell for members of its constituent associations, in which it covers, for example, issues in current EU decision-making that are relevant to local authorities or funding programmes that impact on them. Another pilot contribution to devolved communication took shape in the run-up to the 2009 European elections with the publication in collaboration with the Commission representation in Munich of articles of interest to the public in the editorial sections of the local authority official gazettes and information bulletins. On the whole, however, the prevailing impression so far is that it is CoR measures, above all, that still lack the requisite visibility in the local authorities. While the Commission and Parliament can already count on devolved representations in the Member States, this is not yet the case for the CoR. Given this, the member associations in the Joint European Office pledge to do more to serve as multipliers for the CoR in their Länder. However, one important element in communicating European issues successfully at local authority level is personal awareness of decision-making processes and the exchanging of views with the relevant players in Brussels itself. The Joint European Office therefore not only offers this opportunity to potential local authority staff through placement schemes, but also provides in-service support for staff already working in local government. In addition, the Joint European Office offers guidance to local authorities who would like to present their specific concerns to the European public at the Open Days. All of this culminates in the provision of services and programmes for an average of forty local authority delegations a year from the three Länder to Brussels. The Joint European Office is very grateful in this regard for the logistical support of the Committee of the Regions' visitor service. As well as elected representatives, these delegations also include local government staff. Since its establishment, the Joint European Office has achieved sustained development in this area. 6
E-Mail: info@ebbk.de 0032-2- 513.88.20 E-Mail: 0032-2-513.88.20 E-Mail: Over time, more and more members of the constituent associations have created special positions for Europe coordinators or specialists within their administrations. These staff have in turn branched out from their own member associations and begun networking among themselves in more or less formal structures, even going as far as institutionalised working parties. The Joint European Office therefore welcomes the fact that the Committee of the Regions would like to take this process of networking and institutionalisation on board and has pledged itself to cooperating with these networks over the long term. Making local authority measures more effective Boosting the role of the local level as an agent of EU implementation EU procurement law identified as significant problem area Legal certainty through recent ECJ rulings on inter-municipal cooperation welcomed In line with its own experience, the Joint European Office of the Local Authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony fully endorses the conclusions of the White Paper to the effect that given the level of integration EU activity consistently has a direct impact on local authorities. Academic studies indicate that between 60% and 80% of EU legislation has to be implemented at the local level. One key legal area that has played an important role in the agenda of the Joint European Office in the past decade has been EU procurement law and its application in local authority procurement. The White Paper's explicit reference to difficulties in implementation in this area, leading to legal uncertainties, is particularly to be welcomed. One example was the ever increasing incursion, via the European Commission, of procurement law into "inter-municipal cooperation". Particularly given the decentralised and therefore publicoriented local authority set-up in Bavaria, Baden- Württemberg and Saxony, cooperation between local authorities is an indispensable tool for providing effective and efficient services for the benefit of the public. For this reason, the Joint European Office welcomes the fact that the European Court of Justice has recently addressed the issue of legal certainty for local authorities. 7
E-Mail: info@ebbk.de 0032-2- 513.88.20 E-Mail: 0032-2-513.88.20 E-Mail: In influential rulings it has, in effect, rejected the extensive application of EU procurement law to inter-municipal cooperation, confirmed local authority freedom of choice regarding the manner of implementation and so helped to make the "local-authority-friendly" spirit of the Lisbon treaty a reality even before it entered into force. Secondary legislation to reflect new trends in rulings Local authority expertise makes EU lawmaking more effective und efficient Reactive consultation rights for the local level to extend proactive collaboration rights in impact assessment In order to reflect in secondary law this broad discretionary scope of local authorities in relation to services of general interest, as confirmed in Protocol 26 to the Lisbon treaty, European legislators are also now urged to work for a swift revision of EU procurement directives with local authorities in mind. The Joint European Office therefore calls on the Committee of the Regions to support the European Parliament's ongoing work towards an own-initiative report on the state of implementation of EU procurement law. In general, the Joint European Office underscores the need for the local authority tier to be more closely involved at an early stage in the European decision-making process. It regards the ongoing revision of the Directive on combating late payment in commercial transactions as an excellent recent example from which to learn. With this in mind, a member of staff from the local authorities represented by the Joint European Office was able to attend the committee hearings on this issue and express to MEPs local-level concerns about the proposed directive, based on grassroots experience. At the same time, downstream consultation rights in legislative procedures do not obviate the need for a wide-ranging impact assessment especially one that benefits from the timely involvement of local authority players when legislation is being proposed. Finally, and in this connection, the Joint European Office supports the goal of the White Paper to refine the consultation culture. At the same time, however, it warns that a purely quantitative expansion of the consultation procedure at local level will merely increase Euroscepticism and that, instead, the way to take greater account of administrative capacities at local level is through longer consultation periods. 8