SPEECH BY THE HON. AUSTIN GATT, MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, AT CONFERENCE ENTITLED "THE MALTESE LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN THE RUN-UP TO THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION" ORGANISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF REGIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN COLLABO

Your Excellency,

Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure and an honour for me to welcome such a distinguished delegation to Malta.

In 1993, the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Fenech Adami, took a further step to enhance democracy in Malta and introduced Local Governments - a political initiative which has re-thought Government and re-positioned traditional public service delivery channels closer to the citizen.

The acclaimed progress achieved by the introduction of this second tier of government in Malta was the outcome of a concerted strategy to extend democracy in our country; a strategy which was amply based on three founding principles:

The principle of subsidiarity;

Decision-making capacity at the level closest to the citizen;

Devolution of power and decentralisation of services.

Throughout these initial seven years of local governance, our citizens have witnessed a radical overhaul in public service delivery and in the decision-making process, due to our focused and solid framework which is based upon the over-riding premise of improving the quality of life of the Maltese citizens. To attain our aims we embarked on a rigorous programme which posed various challenges on both the political and the technical fronts. The delivery of this programme was a success story and has now presented us with the four corner-stones on which we are constructing our local governance strategy and policies:

An aggressive devolution programme;

Sustainable organisation structures in the local authorities backed with supply of human, physical and financial resources;

Establishing local councils as one-stop-shops for public services;

Constant update of policies in the "think global-act local" framework.

My Government is determined to sustain the progress of local governance and in its drive to achieve this it will continue in its consistent strides to empower and enable our local authorities to make them meet the expectations of the citizens who elected them as their representatives. In fact, the Government's programme for the next three years will be based on three strategic thrusts for local government policy, namely:

Alternative service delivery

In line with my Government's quality service strategy, we are committed to establish local councils as local and regional one-stop-shops to replace traditionally centralised public services. This drive towards the provision of alternative service delivery channels is highly complementary to the marked momentum which Government is gaining in the attainment of eGovernment – a partnership which will bring forth a paradigm shift in the way both central and local Governments discharge services to the public;

Establishing local authorities as social policy satellites

This year, my Ministry will be launching a three-year mission to introduce social services and initiatives at both regional and local level. The main objective of this strategy is to leverage on the success that was registered in the other fields, in order to decentralise social services traditionally delivered only by central agencies.

Our first milestone will be to establish regional community development centres which will serve as a social holistic hub for the decentralised social services. Based on this experience we shall extend the concept down to the local level in those localities which require more social support than others.

Stepping up of citizen participation in local authorities

My Government seriously believes that there exists a clear and inevitable link between the development of democracy and the growth of citizens' participation. We also believe that the forms of direct participation and the functioning of representative democracy are also closely related to the development of society.

Like all the other European countries, we are intensely concerned on the extent of citizen participation in the political process at the local level. In view of this we are determined to review the issue of citizens' participation in local public life and eventually adapt forms and mechanisms of participation to modern society.

The actuation of this programme does not subsist in a vacuum; it is in no way independent of the other components of the Government's programme; neither is it in any way irrelevant to the social, economic and political realities that Malta will be facing. Without any doubt the major reality that this country has to handle is the European Union.

I firmly believe that in this major advent we have to emphasise the relevance of the local authorities in the enlargement process and strive to draw the latter closer the European Union and its institutions. In this context, I ask you to recall the thinking about European governance expressed by the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, whilst addressing the same Committee of the Regions in Brussels last February. On that occasion, the President clearly expressed the trend towards new forms of decentralisation and devolution. Professor Prodi continued by expressing his concern on how citizens perceive the Commission to be a "sort of conspiracy of technocrats and bureaucrats working behind closed doors", hence being sceptical about the benefits that their direct community will derive from this political mechanism.

On the day, Professor Prodi explicitly called upon the local and regional bodies' representatives to inform the general public since they are the ones who deal with the citizens on a daily basis. He firmly added that the citizens "need to understand what Europe is about and –above all – to realise that the European Union exists to serve them."

In view of this, as Minister responsible for Local Government, I strongly advocate and support the forging of a closer relationship between the Committee of the Regions and the Maltese Local Councils Association. The principal aim of

your alliance should be focused upon the role of local authorities in providing real, objective and community-specific information about Europe. You should be proactive and promote a continuos interaction that will enable the flow of ideas and contribution.

At a national level, Governments of candidate countries, like Malta, negotiate the best possible conditions with the European Union, but once this cohesion process is finalised, the local authorities of these countries will be on the front line. In view of this, at the dawn of the enlargement of the European Union, both the Maltese local authorities and the Committee of the Regions face unprecedented challenges.

On the one hand the Committee of the Regions has to gear itself towards being the principal resource of the politcal and technical information to be able to respond to the information demand of the local and regional authorities. Becoming full members of the European Union translates into the introduction and implementation of new rules, regulations and standards embraced in a new sophisticated framework. I am convinced that the Committee of the Regions will help our local authorities in handling this situation.

On the other, these challenges will invariably call upon our local politicians to adopt a mature and professional approach towards the way they govern their localities. Despite, the teething problems and the hard resistance that all types of change brings along with it, I look at our local politicans with enthusiasm and courage, trusting that they will continue to act in the spirit of our strong democracy and overcome the barriers that may be contrived from time to time.

A democracy which shall be strongly portrayed in the people's final decision in the referendum, which my Government firmly regards as the portal to our country's accession to the European Union.