Sixth Meeting of Working Table I
Democratisation and Human Rights 
Istanbul 12-13 June 2002

The sixth meeting of the Working Table on Democratisation and Human Rights took place in Istanbul on 12-13 June 2002. The regional Co-Chair Ambassador Daryal Batibay (Turkey) opened the session and the Chair, Mr Alexandros Rondos gave the welcoming address. 

Mr Rondos welcomed the clarification of priorities of the Stability Pact. Ambassador Batibay stressed the need to further promote democratic values in SEE underlining the importance of a reformed history teaching. 

The Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact, Dr Erhard Busek provided an overview of the achievables presented to and endorsed by the EU-General Affairs Council on 11 March 2002 and the Regional Table meeting in Bucharest on 5-6 June 2002. He urged the participants to reinforce the efforts within Working Table I towards the establishment of a democratic and stable South Eastern Europe. He informed delegates on a targeted initiative on reconciliation. 

The Presidency of the European Union, represented by Ambassador Salas from Spain, emphasised the importance of enhanced regional cooperation within SEECP, thereby creating synergies with the Stability Pact and in particular in Working Table I. The Task Forces were called on to ensure that their priorities and actions are complementary to the Stabilisation and Association and the Accession Process. It was agreed to invite Task Forces to set clear objectives for 2003, and to ask the Chairman to notify these to the Special Coordinator by September for forwarding to the General Affairs Council in October and Regional Table at the end of this year. 

Participants confirmed the new Chairman of the Refugee Return Initiative, Mr Soren Jessen-Petersen as well as Mr Bernhard Schlagheck as the new Chairman of the Media Task Force. 

1.       Local Democracy and Cross-Border Cooperation 

Local democracy and cross-border cooperation as key features of the democratisation and stabilisation process in South Eastern Europe shall be given priority within the Stability Pact. It was agreed that : 

·         A Steering Committee will be established to coordinate efforts in the field of local democracy and cross-border cooperation;

·         The Steering Committee will define priority areas, beginning with the mapping of existing initiatives. This will be completed by September 2002.

·         By the same token, a Plan of Action will be developed for 2003. 

A further elaboration is contained in the attached Annex. 

2.       History and History Teaching 

Participants once again emphasised the importance of history and history teaching for reconciliation and democratisation, as well as its regional nature. They underlined the need to new teaching methods and approaches in history education.

 Turkey proposed an initiative on the Ottoman heritage in the Balkans and the way in which it is presented in the history textbooks of the countries of the region as a common theme for all the countries of South Eastern Europe, which was supported by the Chair and the participants. 

3.       Education and Youth 

It was recognised that regional cooperation in education and youth complements efforts undertaken at national level, thereby also promoting reconciliation and the democratisation processes in SEE. Delegates welcomed progress made by the Task Force. It was agreed that the TF will : 

·         Facilitate the launch of 3 more thematic reviews on education reform and system development in SEE countries by the end of 2002.

·         Organise a working meeting of senior officials from SEE Ministries of Education on European integration in the field of education.

·         Further develop the SEE Education Cooperation Network (SEE-ECN).

·         Facilitate development and implementation of regional projects in targeted areas.

·         Seek donor support for the 20 regional projects in the fields of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Young People and a number of history projects that will soon be identified. 

4.       Refugee Return Initiative 

Participants welcomed the fact that the new RRI Chairman had also been appointed Chairman of the Migration and Asylum Initiative in WT III thus strengthening cross-table cooperation. The work of the RRI was commended and its approach endorsed. 

The following immediate steps have been agreed upon : 

·         The establishment of a small Trust Fund with a quick disbursement mechanism to financially support in-country and regional coordination mechanisms and expertise in the housing sector.

·         The organisation of a Conference on housing finance in the second half of 2002 with the sponsorship and support of the Council of Europe Development Bank and the World Bank.

·         The immediate implementation of a joint action to resolve the issue of Collective Centres with the provision of adequate financing for the implementation of solutions for the remaining 60.000 Collective Centre residents.

·         The development and implementation of a regional data exchange mechanism on property issues, supported by a Memorandum of Understanding as proposed by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  5.       Media 

Working Table I confirmed the importance of developing a free, professional and diverse media landscape and commended the work of the Media Task Force in this field. The cooperation between donors, NGOs and local professionals – all of them represented in Media Working Groups – is viewed as a very positive step towards more targeted assistance to the media in Southeast Europe.  

It was underlined that the Media Task Force proposes to work with local organisations with a proven track-record, in order to be cost-effective and to ensure sustainability of professional media organisations.  

Work in the field of

∙ legislative reform,

∙ (regional co-) productions of quality television programmes,

∙ building up local journalism training capacity and

∙ expanding networks of media organisations needs to continue.   

6.       Gender Task Force   

The GTF’s activity is one of the more visible activities in the framework of the Stability Pact, which is largely due to its broad regional participatory structure. The most visible effect of this Task Force has been the increased percentage of women’s participation in political decision-making. The GTF cross-table approach was recognised as well as its active development of partnerships with NGO’s, Parliaments, Governments, other Task Forces and International Organizations to produce synergy within its own activity and beyond. In this manner, the GTF will continue to contribute to sub-regional co-operation. 

 The ongoing GTF institutionalisation process provides another opportunity for contributing to the success of the Stability Pact as a whole. The GTF is seeking strategic partners for this process as an important precondition to sustainable balanced participation of women and men in creating a more prosperous and stable South Eastern Europe as it progresses towards the European integration.

  7.       Parliamentary Co-operation 

The implementation of four NGO projects supporting the work and regional cooperation of parliamentarians within the Task Force on Parliamentary Cooperation indicates that in a number of cases members of parliament have started to operate in a more effective and assertive manner.     

As it was considered that parliamentary dimension covers all initiatives within the Stability Pact, cooperation will be intensified with Task Forces in all three Working Tables, including inter alia the Task Forces on Gender, on Media, on Trafficking in human beings, and SPAI/SPOC (anti-corruption and organised crime). Intensified co-operation with the parliamentary dimension of the South East Europe Co-operation Process will encourage ownership of the region in the parliamentary field. 

8.       Human Rights and National Minorities 

Consolidating peace and stability requires a long-term investment in human rights and democratic institutions. The Task Force has initiated a number of projects on the promotion of human rights and the protection of national minorities:

  ·         legal projects on non-discrimination, implementation of highest international standards for the protection of national minorities and bilateral treaties;

·         the ombudsman network;

·         "Link Diversity" regional civil society initiative;

·         a comprehensive regional strategy for the promotion of the status of the Roma;

·         cooperative programs with local human rights NGOs on strengthening human rights networks. 

The Task Force has been invited to set clear objectives within the framework of its strategy until end June 2002. Donors were invited to support the work of the Link Diversity Campaign's National Organizing Committees and their projects. 

Annex to the Conclusions of the
Sixth Meeting of Working Table I
Democratisation and Human Rights 
Istanbul, 12-13 June 2002 

LOCAL DEMOCRACY AND CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION

Local democracy and cross-border cooperation are key features of the democratisation and stabilisation process in South Eastern Europe. The conference gave its full backing to the conclusions of a number of reports and presentations submitted by the Council of Europe, the Association of European Border Regions, EastWest Institute, and the Open Society Institute, pointing up to the need to pursue the goal of enhanced local ownership. 

The Stability Pact would be fully playing its role of promoting democratisation and stabilisation of South Eastern Europe by acknowledging the decisive importance of strong local democracy, cross-border cooperation, regional partnership and know-how sharing between countries and regions across Europe, especially those that have already experienced transition from centralist rule to democracy. 

The major areas for action in the field of local democracy were identified in local government capability, fiscal decentralisation, citizen's participation and involvement of the civil society especially through Non-Governmental Organisations. Assistance to the ongoing legislative reform and their implementation should therefore continue, with results monitored (as the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe - CLRAE - does) and adequate training being provided to supplement the ongoing changes. 

The local authorities of the region should be closely involved, enhancing the regional and local ownership of the process. A case in point was the recent establishment by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe of a forum of the elected representatives of the region that could act as a focal point for discussion and political guidance. 

Also, strong associations of municipalities were acknowledged to be important in the process of decentralisation. The Network of National Associations of Local Authorities of South Eastern Europe - NALA - created under the aegis of the CLRAE should be further supported in carrying out common initiatives. 

The support to ongoing reforms in the field of local finance and fiscal decentralisation given by the Council of Europe and the Fiscal Decentralisation Initiative - FDI - network should also continue. 

Also, the Local Democracy Agencies - LDA - established by the Council of Europe have shown considerable results during the past years in working with local governments and with civil society. LDAs can build upon a wide network of international and local partners and should receive further support. 

The Conference noted that one of the major challenges to the countries in SEE, namely the process of preparation for the EU accession, has to be strongly supported on the local level, since local governments make a considerable contribution to the regional economic and social development and will bear the responsibility for implementing a sizeable part of future EU legislation. Therefore, the transfer of best practices and know-how already started by some associations of local authorities is crucial and should be pursued. 

It was also apparent that a mapping exercise of ongoing activities and assistance programmes carried out throughout the region by national agencies, international organisations and foundations and NGOs would be extremely useful. Noting that such exercise is being conducted by OSI, the Conference welcomed this initiative as it would help to get a clear picture of "who does what", to spot areas where synergies could be developed and to identify gaps to which fresh action should be oriented. Indeed, this mapping exercise could be completed with performance indicators as to where action has been successful or not, bearing in mind the objective difficulty of quantifying results and the long-term horizon against which local government reform should be put. 

Cross-border cooperation is also a decisive element for strengthening good-neighbourly relations and consolidate the stability of the region. It is a key factor of European integration, therefore national governments should be encouraged to ratify Council of Europe's Outline Convention on Transfrontier cooperation of territorial communities or authorities and its protocols and to further develop bi- or multilateral agreements enabling decentralised cross-border cooperation. 

Furthermore, attention should be given to the suggestion of negotiating a specific agreement on cross-border cooperation in the SEE region, as advocated by the Novi Sad Forum of cities of South Eastern Europe. 

Euroregions and other local cross-border cooperation initiatives play an important role in the process of reconciliation, socio-cultural development, as well as towards the creation of strong ties between the people across borders. The knowledge and experience of both the Council of Europe and the Association of European Border Regions should be used here to promote links between such initiatives and exchanges of best practices. 

Support to, and networking of existing Euroregions should continue and the steps already undertaken, towards the creation of new ones be brought to a successful conclusion. Furthermore, new cooperation processes could be encouraged and established in those areas of the region where the need for reconstructing good-neighbourly relations is particularly acute. 

The role of the European Commission's programmes - CARDS, PHARE, MEDA, INTERREG III - was mentioned in this connection as they could play an important role in the financing of cross-border cooperation projects. This is however an area where the lack of adequate capability on the part of local government staff and elected representatives was most acutely felt and the need for training is most acute. 

In conclusion, the Conference resolved to give new impetus to local democracy and transfrontier cooperation issues within the Stability Pact. To this end, and in order to elaborate specific proposals for strengthening local authorities and cross-border cooperation in SEE in the Stability Pact framework, the Conference agreed to set up a Steering Committee on Local Democracy and Cross-border Cooperation. 

The Steering Committee would be entrusted with the elaboration of proposals based on the existing background documents, the information gathered through the various mapping exercises and the assessment of the situation in the region. It would include donor and beneficiary countries, international organisations, NGOs and Euroregions active in the area. The existing CLRAE forum of elected representatives from the region should be used to the maximum possible extent to enhance the effectiveness of the Steering Committee. 

The Steering Committee should elaborate its proposals including the identification of concrete achievable objectives for 2003 in time for them to be taken into consideration at the next Regional Table meeting.