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15 September 1992
Doc. 6662
O P I N I O N
on the texts adopted at the
27th session of the Standing Conference of Local and
Regional Authorities of Europe 1
(Rapporteur: Mrs Leni FISCHER, Germany, CDU/CSU)
General observations
1. The texts involved are excessively long.
2. The continuing tendency to generalised "charters" is unfortunate. There is clearly a value in such texts for Central and Eastern Europe where a summary of accepted western standards can be useful. It is important however to separate accepted ideas from the new, and in some cases controversial, proposals that these apparently innocuous charters can conceal. It is also necessary to adjust general principles (as stated in these charters) to specific applications on a case by case basis. On most of the subjects involved discussion is still open and too many controversies remain to enable the expression of general consensus in the form of a charter.
3. The Assembly cannot accept the position maintained throughout Resolutions 234, 236 and 237 that the main problem in Europe is "nationalism" and that this can simply be sidestepped by concentrating on the local and European dimensions. This position also ignores the difference between the problems of nationalism in Western and in Central and Eastern Europe. (See Amendments 3, 4 and 5 to Doc. 6627).
4. These texts reveal a similarly naïve belief in the goodness of local authorities as a means of redressing the malevolence of central government. On the contrary it should be pointed out that smaller local or regional authorities can be more susceptible to pressures from the commercial sector or a particular social group than is the central government. The more distant authority can have a better chance of safeguarding general principles than the more immediate.
Reporting committee: Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities (Doc. 6627)
Committee for opinion: Committee on Culture and Education
Reference to committee: Doc. 6593, Reference No. 1783 of 4 May 1992
Opinion: Approved by the committee on 1 September 1992