Mr President,
Distinguished Congresswomen,
Distinguished Congressmen,

I am pleased to address this Plenary Session of The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities as representative of my country’s Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Norway has always given priority to the Council of Europe and actively supported it. The Council of Europe plays an important role in promoting democracy, human rights and good governance, and in preventing conflict in our part of the world.

During Norway’s chairmanship, we will do our outmost to put the Council in an even better position to carry out these important tasks. In a rapidly changing Europe, we believe that the Council of Europe needs to be open to reform and change, and that the Council should focus clearly on its main objectives.

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I shall restrict my statement to three parts.

Firstly, a passage on the priorities of the Norwegian Chairmanship.

Secondly, I will share with you my government’s vision for modernizing the Norwegian public sector and local government.

And to round off, some comments about the activities of the Committee of Ministers and the contribution of the Congress.

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Mr President,

We wish to focus our chairmanship on the following areas:

Firstly: Strengthening human rights and legal co-operation.

The most important priority in this area is to improve the efficiency of the European Court of Human Rights. Our emphasis on the Court reflects the fact that the central objectives of our organisation is the promotion of human rights, the rule of law and good governance, and the court is one of the mainstays of European efforts to advance human rights.

However, the Court has been struggling with an explosive increase in its workload in recent years. At the Foreign Ministers’ meeting on 12-13 May this year member countries took important steps in a positive direction by adopting the amending Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (Protocol no. 14). During the Norwegian chairmanship we will take steps to follow up these decisions. In order to promote this process, we will be inviting all member states to a symposium on how we can further strengthen the protection of human rights through more effective operation of the Court, and by making the necessary changes at national level in member states.

As part of its efforts to support human rights, Norway will also give priority to further measures in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. These include the preparation of a convention against trafficking in human beings and steps to secure broad international support for the Convention on Cybercrime.

Secondly: we will focus on relationships between the Council of Europe and other organisations, in particular the OSCE and the EU.

The aim should be for these organisations to complement each other, and not compete. The Council of Europe and the OSCE are to a large extent working in the same areas, but often with different approaches. I believe there is scope for further improving the co-ordination with the OSCE, keeping in mind that we should both stick to what we do best.

We are pleased with the outcome of the most recent High Level meeting between the Council of Europe and the European Union, and will seek to strengthen the dialogue with the EU on the basis of the Joint Declaration from that meeting.

Thirdly: we wish to strengthen and develop the Council of Europe’s role in preventing conflict and creating stability.

The Council’s efforts to promote intercultural dialogue and good governance are important issues in this respect. We will also support dialogue and contact between religious communities. Norway believes that education has great potential for promoting knowledge and understanding between cultures and different ethnic groups. We will be hosting a conference in Oslo on the religious dimension of intercultural education during our Chairmanship.

Norway sees the work to promote rights of minorities as an important part of Council of Europe’s activities, and will support a seminar focussing on measures to assist Roma/Sinti youth.

Mr. President,

The comprehensive network of co-operation that has been developed within the Council of Europe also contributes to greater understanding, more stability and more support for fundamental freedoms, all of which are vital in preventing conflict.

In further developing our organisation as a platform for dialogue and understanding, close co-operation between the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is needed.

The two elected bodies already provide important advice and guidance for our activities. However, in order to promote the objectives of our organisation they should be even more actively engaged in reviewing and discussing member states’ commitments and future actions.

Mr. President,

We believe that an active democracy at all levels of government is important in creating stability and encouraging participation in society. Through the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe extensive co-operation between municipal and regional authorities in member states has been developed. Norway considers this to be an important means of contributing to good governance, and wishes to strengthen this co-operation.

I am strongly convinced that for democratic culture to take root in society, the principles of democracy must be implemented right down to the level closest to the citizens. For this reason, Norway values the work that the Council of Europe has been carrying on for more than forty years to entrench democracy and build good governance not only from the top down but also at the grass roots.

The European Charter of Local Self-Government has become the reference text for decentralisation reforms. On this basis, both your Congress and the intergovernmental sector develop, today with increased synergy, their activities aimed at promoting, consolidating and expanding local and regional democracy.

The rich experience gained is now at the disposal of the newer member states, including those in South-Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus.

I would like to welcome the recent developments in the strategic approach of the co-operation and assistance programmes. These are now well targeted to improve the institutional framework for local government, build up local authorities responsiveness to the needs of citizens, increase community engagement and promote citizen participation. The capacity-building activities on local government training and dissemination of best practice in leadership, management and service provision have been developing well.

Norway is committed to supporting the intergovernmental co-operation to reinforce local and regional democracy. We have been very happy to promote the pilot projects on development of democratic citizenship and responsive leadership at local level in Bulgaria and Romania. In the context of the Norwegian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, we are making further efforts to support the work on capacity building. More generally, I am confident that innovative co-operation proposals to develop sound and democratic governance at local level will attract the donor support they deserve.

Mr President,

During our Chairmanship, Norway will host a conference in Oslo 30 September - 1 October on Strengthening local democracy and democratic participation in a changing world. We have invited the Council of Europe member states and The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to co-operate and participate in the conference.

Recent experiences gained from Council of Europe projects will be used to illustrate this important topic. The conference will help to focus attention on the links between democracy building and conflict prevention. While all members will be invited to send representatives, we in particularly would welcome participants from the South-Caucasus region and West Balkan, and will take active steps in this respect.

Mr. President,

Democracy building must be based on the active participation of citizens. All countries and regions in Europe are currently considering the development of local democracy and are facing challenges. Low turnout rates in local elections indicate declining public interest in politics and weaknesses in the institutions of local representative democracy. This tendency decreases the effectiveness, openness and accountability of the system.

A study carried out in 1998 by The Steering Committee of Local and Regional Democracy concluded that citizens participation in local politics is not declining but rather changing its form and this challenges the traditional political system. The trend is towards people becoming more interested in direct forms of participation. This shift in the pattern of politics has profound implications for the traditional institutions of local representative democracy. It implies that local government requires an open-minded, transparent and flexible approach to engage the public.

The conference will address these highly important issues and present initiatives and experiences from member countries to frame a policy for good governance and democratic participation at local level.

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Now, Mr. President, let me present my government’s vision for modernizing the Norwegian public sector and local government.

The main challenges facing the Norwegian public sector are very similar to what more or less all the western welfare societies are facing. There is an increasing demand for public services, and there is a demand and expectation for services that are more and more adapted to the needs and situation of the individual. There is an increase in the number of elderly people, and there is a sharp increase in the public expenditure for retirement and disablement pensions. These factors represent a high level of pressure on the expenditure side for the local authorities, at a time when the financial situation for the local authorities is already weak.

Perhaps one should think that Norway, being a small and rather wealthy nation due to its oil resources, should be able to finance an even higher level of public services for its inhabitants. This is of course possible for a short period of time, but would be very unwise in the long run, and is therefore not the policy of my government. The main reason for this is of course that our oil reserves are limited and we must be competitive on the international markets now and in the future. It is therefore of great importance to develop our exporting industries, which means that the public expenditure and the wages in the domestic industries cannot be allowed to rise freely. As in many other western countries, Norway will also face a great challenge concerning the supply of labour. This is also an important argument for not letting the public sector grow too large.

The government’s control and directing role over the local level must balance the consideration for an equal service delivery for every citizen, and the local level’s maximum freedom to adapt their services to local needs and develop their community.

The local level in Norway traditionally has a rather large degree of autonomy, and it has the responsibility for large and demanding tasks in our welfare system, including childcare, education, various social and health services, and the care of the elderly. Our policy is to maintain and strengthen the local level’s role as a service deliverer and a builder of well-functioning local environments. The policy is based on delegating responsibilities, decentralisation of tasks and local accountability. To achieve this, it is however necessary to make important changes at the local level.

Mr. President,

How then, to achieve the necessary changes? What is the Norwegian government’s main modernisation policy towards the local level?

My government’s aims is a simpler and more clearly defined society, a service supply that are adapted to the needs of the individual, a public sector that is efficient, a public sector that is productive and efficiency promoting, and a public sector that has a policy for personnel management that is including and stimulating. Towards the local level, our efforts run along two main lines.

The first line is to make external conditions better for the local authorities. That is, to make more room for local politics and local adaptations, by making the funding system more simple, making more use of general purpose grants instead of earmarked funds, the laws fewer and less rigid, reduce reporting requirements, etc.

We are also concerned about the large number of municipalities in our country, and especially the large number of very small municipalities. We have 434 municipalities and 19 county authorities in our country with 4,6 million inhabitants. Our median municipality has 4.400 inhabitants. We think that a lot of these municipalities are too small and not robust enough to meet the challenges of tomorrow. We have therefore launched a program that enables the local authorities and their organisation to make studies outlining the consequences of amalgamations.

The second line is based on encouragement and support from the central level, supporting modernisation activities at the local level. This strategy includes funding of research and cutting-edge projects, bringing forth good examples and best practice, stimulating the spreading of valuable knowledge in various ways, making public benchmarking results, etc.

An interesting example of the latter is our program called "Networks for efficiency", which was launched in 2001 as a co-operation between three ministries and the National Association of Local and Regional Authorities. The idea is that 5 to 7 municipalities go together and form a network to study their practice and results in service delivery.

It is my belief that competition is a very strong incentive. We see now that local authorities take substantially more interest in opening up their service production for outside contractors, as well as a whole new attitude towards measuring and benchmarking themselves. It is important that central government support this development and learning processes.

My government’s vision for good governance and efficiency at local level is linked to new initiatives to strengthen the participation of citizens in local public life. The last two decades there has been significant decrease in the electoral turnout in local and regional elections.

This development has led to a debate in Norway on the situation of local democracy. Different views have been put forward to explain why this has happened. On this background my government has appointed a commission to scrutinise the local democracy situation in Norway. It is also a main objective by establishing this commission to make a broad agreement across the political parties on what should be done.

The commission is expected to make their reports within spring 2006. Elements from these issues will, as earlier mentioned, also be discussed in the Oslo Conference in September this year. I will invite other countries to present their experiences, and such give valuable input to our national debate on these issues.

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I now move on, Mr. President, to the third part of my statement.

In the middle of May, we held the 114th Session of the Committee of Ministers.

One of the highlights of the Session was the reform of the European Court of Human Rights. I am delighted that 17 member States signed the adopted protocol, thus setting in motion the procedure for eventual ratification by all contracting parties.

High on the agenda of the Session was the proposed Third Summit. The Vienna Summit of 1993 marked the beginning of the process of bringing all European democratic states together on an equal footing. We all know the significant progress achieved since then. The Third Summit will lay the guidelines for the Council of Europe’s future action and its interaction with other international organisations and institutions. And Ministers emphasised that the Third Summit would confirm the strategic objective of a Europe without dividing lines, based on democracy, the rule of law and the respect for human rights.

The contribution of the Congress to the file for the Summit has been most welcome. We look forward to ongoing co-operation on preparatory work once the date has been fixed by the Deputies within the summer.

The Council of Europe contribution to international action against terrorism is one of the Committee of Ministers’ pressing priorities. Terrorism seriously jeopardises the enjoyment of human rights and constitutes a serious threat to democracy.

Other major challenges, which were discussed at the Ministers Meeting in May were organised crime, including money laundering and trafficking in human beings.

Another subject of particular interest to the Congress is that dealing with the creation of a European Forum for Roma and Travellers.

Let me also touch briefly on monitoring and the observation of elections.

In particular, the monitoring of the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-government plays an important part in this process. So far, 35 states have been monitored and the monitoring cycle will, I understand, be complete by 2007. We shall have the opportunity of raising this with you, when you discuss the question with the Deputies at a meeting devoted to the monitoring of local and regional democracy.

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Mr President, I look forward to your reactions now or later. I shall now reply to the questions tabled. I also pledge a speedy reply to your Recommendations. The Committee of Ministers record in this respect has improved dramatically in recent years. And, I shall do my best to improve it even further.

Thank you very much for your attention!