Skopje   —  The work of the Stability Pact in promoting effective and better work of local and regional authorities, one of the stepping stones of good national governance, has been handed over to the Council of Europe in the aftermath of the successful 2nd South-Eastern Europe Regional Ministerial Conference on "Effective Democratic Governance At Local And Regional Level", which ended today (9 November) in Skopje.

The Conference symbolically represented the crowning of the successful Stability Pact – Council of Europe co-operation in support of the local democracy reform in the region.  With a view of the transformation of the Stability Pact into a more regionally-owned structure, the Local Democracy part of the Pact's Local Democracy and Cross Border Co-operation Task Force (LODE CBC) has been transferred to the Council of Europe.  The remaining Cross Border Co-operation component will be transferred to the region and handed over to the Thessaloniki Office of the Stability Pact.

The Conference assessed progress made in the field of decentralisation since the Ministerial Conference held in Zagreb in October 2004 on "Effective Democratic Governance at Local and Regional Level”.  Moreover, ministers from South Eastern Europe committed themselves to further reforms towards better local government and identified key priorities, with a view to encouraging targeted, demand-driven support by the international community.

Several key priorities crucial for the local democracy reform in the region were singled out as crucial: capacity building of the civil servants working in local government institutions; reinforcing democracy at the grass-roots level through increased participation of citizens in local public life and providing local authorities with resources adequate to the tasks allocated to them.

The Ministers and other participants of the conference also committed themselves politically to the implementation of the “Work Programmes for Better Local Government” which have been presented at the conference.  Moreover, they declared their readiness to regularly review these Work Programmes in co-operation with the representatives of local authorities and the international partners.

This conference represented a follow-up to the Ministerial Conference held in Zagreb in October 2004 on "Effective Democratic Governance at Local and Regional Level".  It was organised by the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and the Directorate of Co-operation for Local and Regional Democracy (DCDLR) of the Council of Europe, in collaboration with the Government of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Background information:

Final Declaration of the 2nd SEE Regional Ministerial Conference on “Effective Democratic Governance at Local and Regional Level” (Skopje, 8-9 November 2006)

More information available via Working Table I Event page.

For further information, please contact Stability Pact's Spokesperson
Mr Dragan Barbutovski at the SP Secretariat in Brussels
(Tel: +32 2 401 87 25 or press@stabilitypact.org).
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PR2006/023