Local and regional governments are on the frontline, dealing with the health emergency, mitigating social and economic real-time impact on the poorest. They must keep basic services going and guarantee food supplies.
Regional governments will need to deal with population changes when urban jobs are disrupted and people seek subsistence elsewhere.
They also play a critical role in fostering the solidarity of communities and making it possible for civil society to come together and contribute to the resilience of our communities.
CHALLENGES AT LOCAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS
- In addition to managing the COVID19m crisis, the European local authorities have been at the forefront of the national responses to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Tasked with managing arrivals, but also with supporting refugees through the long-term challenge of establishing independent livelihoods in Europe, councils across the country have been given a momentous task. And yet, despite their central role in refugee integration, local authorities have received little focused attention.
- The representation gap in local council hurts our communities. If groups or demographics are excluded from local authority workforces, they’re almost certainly excluded from decision-making that impacts them (despite best intentions). Even where local authorities are taking the right actions, lack of representation is a major barrier.
- Many marginalised communities have a history of feeling ignored or betrayed by authority, so there’s an inherent lack of trust and engagement. If the people leading your forums aren’t representative, those barriers are difficult to overcome – and they hamper the honest, vulnerable conversations that drive real change.
- Poor workforce representation (and inclusion, to empower diverse voices to make an impact) means actions might be prioritised that unintentionally don’t serve the best interests of certain communities. Especially if those voices aren’t being elevated into senior positions where they have influence.
- It’s hard to be truly diverse within local government’s current slightly paternalistic approach of top-down service delivery. That’s a vicious cycle that ultimately risks diverse and underrepresented communities becoming distrustful and disengaged. Making change even harder to achieve.
- To be continued. We keep adding points as our project developes...
MAJOR QUESTIONS
- How to avoid the “lockdown” of territorial democracy and maintain the legitimacy of elected councils and elected representatives when political processes in councils can only be held electronically, when means of consultations with citizens are reduced, and elections postponed.
- How to ensure effectiveness of their action when competences and financial resources are re- centralised.
- How to strike the right balance between centralised and decentralised action which must complement each other in the inter-active multi-level governance system.
- How to improve the role of local and regional authorities within national crisis management, and ensure the competences and means necessary for them to handle the crisis.
- How to ensure that restrictive measures are proportional to the requirements and are implemented under democratic control, to provide transparency and oversight of all aspects of governmental responses, and guard against the closing of civic space.
- How to guarantee the democratic link between mayors or executives and their local or regional assemblies, and the accountability of the executive to their assemblies in a time of crisis.
- How to communicate with citizens, address their needs and support them in times of crisis, and maintain the climate of trust, necessary to better respond to an emergency.
In the face of the Covid-19 crisis, local and regional authorities have been at the forefront of the responses to contain the spread of the disease and mitigate the impact of the outbreak on their communities.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe held a debate and the results of the discussions fed into the Congress’ cross-cutting report “Ensuring the respect of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in times of crisis” presented to the Congress Session in March 2021.
The INDIMAE Network debates the findings and adds own reflections and recommendations.
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This publication has been produced with the support of the Europe for Citizens Program of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the INDIMAE project partnership and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Commission.