Version classiqueVersion mobile

Globalization and the City

 | 
Andreas Exenberger
, 
Philipp Strobl
, 
Günter Bischof
, 
et al.

The Council of European Municipalities and Regions: Shared Governance in a World Featured by Globalization Issues

Manfred Kohler

Texte intégral

Introduction

  • 1 For reasons of simplicity, cities, municipalities and regions will be collectively called local and (...)
  • 2 Woyke (2008), 202-209.

1This chapter answers the question of how European cities, municipalities and regions1 within the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) tackle some of the issues concerning all of us in an increasingly globalized world. It may appear odd at first to contribute a chapter on local and regional authorities to a publication on global cities. However, legally speaking, global cities, despite their reach and influence, are at the same time also local and regional authorities. Since the nineteenth century, the world has seen an unprecedented increase of international organizations. In times of economic, cultural, and technological globalization, the conventional nation state alone is no longer able to control cross-border transactions and interactions. As a result, there were about 251 International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) in 2001, such as the United Nations Organization (UNO) or the European Union (EU), and more than 5,000 International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) like Greenpeace or Amnesty International.2 Along with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or UNO, the CEMR was among the first international organizations formed after the Second World War.

  • 3 Aristotle was one of the first great philosophers who said that people naturally organize their liv (...)
  • 4 For information on global forms of political organization see Varwick (2008).

2In this chapter, I will analyze globalization with regard to employment, energy, climate and urbanization. I will do so by focusing on the CEMR, which is the umbrella organization of national associations of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in Europe, founded in 1951. Although European local and regional authorities are the oldest and most persistent forms of political organization thus far3, they now face multiple pressures from above, e. g. the nation state, the European Union and other forms of political organization, coordination and governance.4 It is true that the big decisions are increasingly made at supra-communal and supra-national levels. However, only LRAs can make these decisions stick because they are the ones who enforce compliance at the local level. After all, we all live in and are governed by LRAs, and we refer to them in our everyday lives.

3Before I explain how LRAs within the CEMR tackle the four globalization issues mentioned above, I will give a short introduction to explain what the CEMR is and what its goals are. Then I will look at the CEMR within the framework of the EU system to explain the limits of political action LRAs are currently facing in the European Union. I will first describe the European system of governance and then show how the CEMR, after all an association of political entities with delegated competences only, fits in. Finally, I will give specific examples of how LRAs within the CEMR tackle certain globalization problems like interrelated energy and climate issues, employment, and urbanization.

What is the CEMR?

4The Council of European Municipalities and Regions was founded in 1951 by a group of federalist European mayors. Today it is the biggest umbrella organization for local and regional political authorities in Europe. It consists of 53 national associations of cities, municipalities and regions from 39 countries in-and outside the EU. Taken together, these associations represent close to 100,000 local and regional authorities.

  • 5 This information is taken from: http://www.ccre.org/en/strpolitiques (accessed 15 Jan 2013).

5The CEMR’s budget amounts to 2 million EUR, derived mainly from contributions made by the national associations. The remaining funds, approximately 10%, are annual contributions made by the European Commission in the framework of its Active European Citizenship program. The current (2012) President of the CEMR is Wolfgang Schuster, mayor of the city of Stuttgart in Germany. The CEMR has two governing bodies – the Policy Committee and the Executive Bureau. The Policy Committee, the main governing body, generally meets twice a year. The number of representatives depends on the member states’population numbers; the number of seats granted ranges from two for states that have fewer than 5 million inhabitants to six for states that have more than 60 million. The Executive Bureau is a smaller body; it makes decisions between Policy Committee meetings. It also meets twice a year normally. The Policy Committee elects the CEMR’s president and his/her cabinet for three-year terms.5

  • 6 UN-HABITAT (2007).

6The CEMR is also active at a global level. It forms the European section of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). This worldwide association is the most important partner of the United Nations Organization in matters concerning local and regional political authorities. Upon recommendation of the CEMR and today’s UCLG, UNO established the United Nations Advisory Council of Local Authorities (UNACLA) in 1999, which is designed to include cities and municipalities in UN deliberations on communal issues. In April 2007, the United Nations adopted a resolution, published as Guidelines on Decentralization and the Strengthening of Local Authorities, which strengthened the idea of local self-government and democracy.6

  • 7 For the political and legislative inclusion of LRAs according to the subsidiarity principle, look a (...)

7The most important goal of the CEMR is to support a united and strong Europe based on local and regional self-government and democracy. The CEMR advocates an EU governance system which includes all policy-stakeholders at local, regional, national, and EU levels as equal partners. It advocates a European government that makes decisions plausible to citizens and recognizes the principle of subsidiarity at the same time. With this in mind, the discussion about a European Constitution in 2003/04 first mentioned the role of local and regional authorities in the member states and fortified the principle of subsidiarity. The reformed Lisbon Treaty of 2009 absorbed all of these provisions for local and regional authorities.7

8One of the CEMR’s main tasks is to influence EU policy-making. EU legislation in the fields of environment, public procurement, structural funds, state aid and competition has a major impact on local and regional authorities. Exerting influence upon EU legislation is thus a key task of the CEMR. Based upon and strengthened by the Lisbon Treaty, the CEMR and its national member associations draft positions to be discussed by the European Commission, which has established a new legislative dialogue and put consultation mechanisms in place. It also influences legislation debated by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, thus representing the interests of regional authorities in a wide range of policy areas.

9Another task of the CEMR is to exchange information and experience. Local and regional authorities have great experience in their sphere of competences, be it education and training, economic development, environment or transport. The CEMR supports the exchange of experience and information among its members in order to increase their capacities. To this end, the CEMR organizes working groups, seminars and conferences for members to exchange views and ideas.

  • 8 For further information on the activities of the CEMR, see CEMR (2011).

10The third important mission of the CEMR is to support town partnerships in the form of twinning. The CEMR invented the concept of town partnerships, which are designed to promote a united and peaceful Europe from below, i. e. through its citizens. Europe currently has more than 26,000 so-called town twinning projects, and the CEMR remains dedicated to invigorating this movement by coordinating the efforts of representatives in charge. The CEMR works closely with the European Commission as well as the European Parliament in order to secure the constant funding and political support for town twinning projects.8

The EU Governance Structure

  • 9 Hix/Høyland (2011).
  • 10 Article 15 of the Lisbon Treaty defines the role and competences of the European Council, see: Bund (...)
  • 11 Moravcsik (1998).

11Simon Hix considers the European Union a political system rather than a state.9 The European Union is neither an international organization per se – because of its supranational structures and competences – nor is it a nation state with a monopoly on violence and territorial sovereignty. The EU has no true government supported by police or military forces. Even in matters such as competition and internal markets, the EU relies very much on the compliance of EU member states when it comes to implementing and enforcing policies. However, the member states have developed a political culture of overall compliance with EU treaty laws. They have also legally installed a quasi-government in the form of the European Commission, which has the exclusive right to initiate policies within the EU legislative triangle it forms with the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. However, member states have taken steps to protect their interests in the EU political system. They insist that the European Council of heads of state is now an official EU body with considerable executive power. It provides the guidelines for EU policy-making and decides upon major treaty changes.10 In fact, no major steps towards further European integration can be taken without the Council’s consent, and hence the approval by the nation states’governments,11 which is counterbalancing any efforts of further parliamentarization of the EU governance system. The EU sometimes seems to resemble a medieval empire, with the heads of state and government acting as some kind of prince-electors who decide upon major political steps in European integration. This kind of cooperation is evident in the current debt crisis that had national leaders negotiate major deals and bargaining about important economic and financial decisions. The directly elected European Parliament can react to these major developments, but it does not have the power to change treaties like a regular parliament would (with respect to the constitution and laws).

12However, in their desire for peace and increasing globalization, European leaders have delegated other competencies to the European Commission, issues like internal markets, competition and customs unions. They did so because nation states alone can no longer tackle overall globalization alone. The globalization of markets happened much too fast for political systems to remain national. However, the number of international organizations has grown as a result of increasingly globalized markets and communication, with the EU being the most developed international organization.

  • 12 Kohler-Koch/Eising (1999).
  • 13 For more details see footnote 7.

13Overall, national leaders in the European Council and the Council of the European Union control the EU governance system. But the globalization of the markets, especially the financial markets, has put national leaders under increasing pressure to strengthen political union in the EU, which has further decreased the power of EU member states. However, the EU is still a political system without a true government: neither the European Commission nor the EU national leaders are in full control of things, especially right now in times of the sovereign debt crisis, when markets dictate political decision-making. The EU is thus, as Beate Kohler-Koch claims, a network system of governance that blurs competencies and hierarchies and that gives a voice to many participants, from the local, regional, national and EU-levels to NGOs, private and public sector lobbyists and associations.12 The Lisbon Treaty has further strengthened the role of regional and local authorities, granting them the right to be consulted in all the major policy areas.13 If even the EU and its composite nation states cannot solve globalization problems like those resulting from the global financial crisis, who is able to do so? There is no clear-cut answer to this question, but one thing is certain: the EU and its composite nation-states will need the cooperation of local and regional authorities to tackle global issues.

  • 14 For more details see footnote 7.

14The CEMR has understood the need to include local and regional authorities and thus supports an EU political system of shared, instead of delegated, governance. The new Lisbon Treaty guarantees that local and regional authorities must be heard and that their input must be taken seriously, as is illustrated by the right granted to the Committee of Regions to file charges at the European Court of Justice against a member state or the EU when they violate the subsidiarity principle.14

  • 15 Schuster (2011).
  • 16 European Commission (2012).

15Inspired by these new treaty changes, the CEMR introduced the idea of shared governance or “governing in partnership”, as CEMR President Schuster calls it.15 Given the fact that local and regional authorities are ever more needed when solving problems that cross boundaries, Schuster maintains that all levels of government, including civil society and social partners, have to govern in partnership, not in a hierarchical system that does not consider the needs of its citizens. The CEMR supports the five goals of the EU 2020 strategy:16

  • 75% of the population aged between 20 and 64 should have a job;

  • 3% of GDP are to be spent on research and development (R&D);

  • the 20-20-20 climate-energy goals are to be achieved;

  • the school drop-out rate are to be reduced to below 10% and the rate of people with a tertiary degree aged between 30 and 34 are to be increased to 40%; and

  • the amount of people endangered by poverty is to be reduced by 20 million.

  • 17 Schuster (2011); CEMR (2010).

16President Schuster wants to implement the EU 2020 strategy and its goals through a system of shared governance and to create networks to include all political levels, universities, private and other civil associations. According to Schuster, a steering committee headed by a Commissioner should manage these networks. In addition, inclusive working groups specializing in specific issues should support the steering committee. In its latest proposal, the CEMR urges the EU leaders to implement the EU 2020 strategy, especially the seven flagship initiatives, in a way to include all European citizens in its network. Funded by the European Commission, some of these networks already exist: The Baltic Sea Strategy, for example, strives to increase territorial cohesion between cities, regions and countries such as Denmark, Poland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania etc. Another example is the EU Alpine Space Programme called Interreg III B that tries to find sustainable transport solutions in the Alpine area. The overall idea behind these networks is that all stakeholders are needed to properly address cross-border issues in a certain kind of governance structure.17

Tackling the Globalization-Related Issues Climate Change and Energy

  • 18 For information on SEAPs, see ICLEI (2011).
  • 19 For detailed information on the SEAPs of Lassee and Laxenburg and other European LRAs, see Covenant (...)

17One of the networks strongly supported by the CEMR is the so-called Covenant of Mayors, initiated by the European Commission in 2008 as part of its integrated energy and climate package. The CEMR is part of the Covenant of Mayors Office. The Covenant of Mayors is an official European agreement, which, in 2011, consisted of around 2,800 signatories, mainly cities and towns, that voluntarily committed themselves to exceeding the EU 20% CO2 reduction objective through increased energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources. The signatories of the Covenant have all issued formal declarations to implement Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) at local levels to reach the EU’s 20% greenhouse gas reduction goal. These plans require local and regional authorities to submit annual reports and biannual implementation reports to demonstrate compliance with the goals set out in the community-specific SEAPs.18 All these actions run parallel to an ongoing exchange of information between regional authorities and European citizens, who meet at conferences organized by the Covenant of Mayors Office. The Covenant of Mayors is widely considered a prime example of multi-level governance. Compared to Germany, which has 32 local SEAPs (of which 7 are approved by the European Commission), Austria seems to lag behind in drawing up and implementing SEAPs. Currently there are only two municipalities, Lassee and Laxenburg, which have turned in SEAPs at the European Commission (none of which has been approved yet). However, this does not mean that Austrian municipalities and towns are inactive. Many Austrian municipalities, above all those in the state of Vorarlberg, already participate in energy efficiency schemes. Out of 600 towns and municipalities in ten European countries, three municipalities from Vorarlberg – Langenegg, Zwischenwasser and Mäder – rank among the top three in terms of energy efficiency, which earned them the European Energy Award in 2010, the most significant award for energy efficiency achievements. The SEAPs submitted by Lassee and Laxenburg are still quite promising since both of them show that their CO 2 reduction potentials far exceed the 20% EU benchmark.19

Tackling the Globalization-Related Issue (Un) employment

18In a world in which labor markets are strongly affected by global capitalism, it is ever more important for the EU to ensure that labor markets are attractive and encourage growth. The EU 2020 strategy stresses the issue of employment by demanding that 75% of all EU citizens between 20 and 64 should have a job by 2020. Indeed, all the goals set out in the 2020 strategy are aimed at promoting employment: spending on R & D can lead to more qualified employees, “greening” the economy can offer jobs in totally new industries, and social inclusion as a result of reducing poverty would lead to more employment in the EU labor markets.

  • 20 CEMR (2010).

19In January 2010, the CEMR issued a response to the Commissions’ Communication on the EU 2020 Strategy,20 which protests that the EU 2020 Strategy is too vague. The CEMR insists that all parties should be held accountable for meeting the 2020 employment goals and that participation at all government levels be encouraged. Clearly, the CEMR tries to involve local and regional authorities in European policymaking wherever possible, advocating shared governance at all levels. The CEMR also calls upon the EU to support the infrastructure needs of many local and regional authorities in order to promote employment and attract business (after all, the communal level is crucial to make infrastructure work for employment). In addition the CEMR expresses dissatisfaction with the EU 2020 Strategy’s failure to address spatial or territorial cohesion in matters of employment, claiming that social and economic cohesion will not happen until more people identify with EU goals. The CEMR points out that local and regional authorities play an important role in promoting the inclusion of young and old people on the labor markets through training, education and social services. The CEMR wants the EU to make the support local and regional authorities in their function as job creators a main priority because, as a result of the financial crisis, young people living in small communities are most affected by unemployment. The CEMR supports the EU’s efforts to encourage the economy to go green, which will create more jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But even environmental issues need to involve communities because they have better knowledge of local conditions and the needs of people.

Tackling the Globalization-Related Issue Urbanization

20Globalization goes hand in hand with urbanization, which leads to modernization on the one hand, but on the other creates problems for rural areas as educated, skilled young people leave the countryside for the city.

  • 21 CEMR (2007).

21Austria, for example, has many rural communities affected by brain drain. One way to mitigate the problem is to link rural and urban areas, an idea the CEMR and regional authorities strongly support. The CEMR welcomes the EU’s efforts, as expressed in EU publications such as European Territorial Agenda and the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities.21 The CEMR supports integrated urban development throughout Europe and the establishment of national and regional institutions to make it happen. Europe must take care of and reach all its citizens, especially those who live in deprived urban and rural neighborhoods.

Conclusion

22As we have seen, local and regional authorities are important agents in tackling globalization problems, which the EU plans to solve in close cooperation with local and regional authorities and the CEMR. The examples of cooperation between local and pan-European authorities discussed in this chapter show that the EU is on the right track in this regard, moving towards a political system based less on central government but on network governance including all levels of political decision-making.

Bibliographie

References

Aristoteles (2006): Politik. Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler.

Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (2008): Vertrag von Lissabon. Bonn: BpB.

CEMR (2007): CEMR Response to the European Territorial Agenda and the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities. Brussels: CEMR.

CEMR (2010): Response to the European Commission’s Consultation on the Future EU 2020 Strategy COM (2009) 647 final, Brussels: CEMR.

CEMR (2011): Ein Europa für unsere Gemeinden und Regionen! Brussels: CEMR.

Covenant of Mayors (2012): “Sustainable Energy Action Plans”, online at: http://www.covenantofmayors.eu/actions/sustainable-energy-action-plans_en.html (accessed 27 Feb 2012).

European Commission (2012): “Europe 2020 targets”, online at: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/reaching-the-goals/targets/index_en.htm (accessed 27 Feb 2012).

Hix, Simon/Høyland, Bjørn, eds. (2011): The Political System of the European Union. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

ICLEI (2011): LG Action: 3. und abschließendes Positionspapier der europäischen Kommunen über Klima und Energie. Freiburg: ICLEI.

Kohler-Koch, Beate/Eising, Rainer, eds. (1999): The Transformation of Governance in the European Union. New York: Routledge.

Moravcsik, Andrew (1998): The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Schuster, Wolfgang (2011): Governing in Partnership: An EU Governance Model. Stuttgart: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen.

UN-HABITAT (2007): Guidelines on Decentralization and the Strengthening of Local Authorities. Nairobi: UN-HABITAT.

Varwick, Johannes (2008): “Globalisierung”, in: Woyke, Wichard (ed.): Handwörterbuch Internationale Politik. Opladen & Farmington Hills: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 166-177.

Woyke, Wichard (2008): “Internationale Organisationen”, in: Woyke, Wichard (ed.): Handwörterbuch Internationale Politik. Opladen-Farmington Hills: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 202-209.

Notes

1 For reasons of simplicity, cities, municipalities and regions will be collectively called local and regional authorities (LRAs) in this article, as this is the conventional term according to the United Nations Organization (UNO).

2 Woyke (2008), 202-209.

3 Aristotle was one of the first great philosophers who said that people naturally organize their lives in communal entities, see Aristoteles (2006).

4 For information on global forms of political organization see Varwick (2008).

5 This information is taken from: http://www.ccre.org/en/strpolitiques (accessed 15 Jan 2013).

6 UN-HABITAT (2007).

7 For the political and legislative inclusion of LRAs according to the subsidiarity principle, look at Article 5 of the Lisbon Treaty or Protocol 2 attached to the latter on the application of the principle of subsidiarity, which stipulates, among other things, the inclusion of LRAs in the EU’s legislative process in the form of consultations by the European Commission. Article 8 of Protocol 2 to the Lisbon Treaty even gives the Committee of Regions (CoR) the power to call upon the European Court of Justice (ECJ) when it sees its right to be heard by the EU legislative institutions and its subsidiarity rights infringed upon, see: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (2008).

8 For further information on the activities of the CEMR, see CEMR (2011).

9 Hix/Høyland (2011).

10 Article 15 of the Lisbon Treaty defines the role and competences of the European Council, see: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (2008).

11 Moravcsik (1998).

12 Kohler-Koch/Eising (1999).

13 For more details see footnote 7.

14 For more details see footnote 7.

15 Schuster (2011).

16 European Commission (2012).

17 Schuster (2011); CEMR (2010).

18 For information on SEAPs, see ICLEI (2011).

19 For detailed information on the SEAPs of Lassee and Laxenburg and other European LRAs, see Covenant of Mayors (2012).

20 CEMR (2010).

21 CEMR (2007).

Le texte et les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont sous Licence OpenEdition Books, sauf mention contraire.

Acheter

Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search