| Our call to the European Union – involve local government!
We call on the institutions of the EU:
- To include the local government dimension in its strategic and
operational planning for EU enlargement
- To involve local government, in particular via our national
associations and their network NALAS, in relevant consultations and
dialogue
- To ensure that relevant accession-related financing programmes
are available to assist local government prepare for accession and
achieve high quality development
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What we need from our national governments We call on our
central governments:
- To accelerate the process of decentralization, with the transfer
of the necessary competences, financial and human resources
- To involve our local government associations at all stages in
the processes of decentralisation, financial decision-making, and
preparation for EU membership
- To continue consultations and cooperation with the Council of
Europe whose expertise is essential for compliance with European
standards
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| Our proposals for pre-accession financing We urge the EU
and our central governments to implement the following points:
- Our local government associations, including NALAS, should be
involved from the outset in the negotiations, consultations and
priority-setting
- The instruments should include specific local government-related
priorities, and should also ensure that the local government
dimension of other broad priorities (e.g. equal opportunities,
social inclusion etc.) is clearly identified
- A significant proportion of pre-accession financing should be
dedicated to sub-national governments, in consultation with central
governments, to enable them to prepare properly for EU membership
- To this end, there should be specific programmes or budget lines
for local and regional governments, with processes adapted to their
role and situation as democratic public institutions
- Provision should be made to finance local government technical
assistance units, managed by local government associations, to
support local authorities in drawing up good quality project
proposals
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Towards EU accession – the challenges for local governments
We face at least four main challenges in preparing for EU membership and
beyond:
- A very large proportion of EU laws and rules have to be
implemented by local governments, or have a direct impact on them
- As the governments closest to citizens, we need to build a
“European dimension” to our work, bringing Europe closer to our
citizens, involving them in big EU issues and providing good
information
- The overall quality of our local government administrations
needs to be enhanced, to meet the standards of good governance,
manage resources effectively, deliver good public services, achieve
positive results for citizens, and attract inward investment
- Our local development strategies need to be well-planned,
participatory and citizen-focused, and able to make best use of
territorial funding programmes (IPA, structural funds etc.)
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