Conquering “Fort Brussels”

By Joshua Massarenti

Launched in 2008, the European Platform of Local and Regional Authorities (LRA) for Development represents a wide range of associations of European territorial authorities. “Platforma has three main objectives”, explains Lucie Guillet, charge of the secretariat of Platforma.

“Firstly, enabling a greateracknowledgment of the activities carried out by local and regional authorities in development co-operation for civil society, as well as of the LRAs themselves and European institutions. Secondly, to set up a solid dialogue between LRAs and the EU institutions in charge of development policy and finally, to promote efficient decentralised cooperation”.

It is with this approach that Platforma participated to the Structured Dialogue launched in March 2010 by the EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs. A Structured Dialogue that seeks to reach a common understanding of the strategic role of non-state actors (NSA) and LRAs in the EU’s development activities and to increase their involvement in development activities. This is not to say there isn’t an uphill struggle ahead.

In reference to the two Green Papers recently published by the EU Commission on financial perspectives and priorities for 2014 – 2020, Platforma on the one hand welcomed the Commission’s reaffirmation of its “commitment to development policy and the link between development and EU external policy”. On the other hand, Platforma regrets that “the actor-based approach has not been mentioned” and “proposes to include decentralisation as another transversal priority of the European development policy”.

After all, in the same line as the granting of political recognition of LRAs as key actors for development (take, for example, the Cotonou agreement, the EU Commission Communication from 2008 and the Schapira Report adopted by the EU Parliament in 2007), Platforma reminds us that “the Structured Dialogue opened a vast participatory reflection on development effectiveness and the division of labour by type of actor”.

Consequently, the informal LRA structure says that “if the European Consensus on Development and the EU code of conduct on complementarity and division of labour are re-examined, the role of local and regional authorities be mentioned in a clear manner in the texts”.

In a move to renew the interest of the EU institutions, Platforma will present a 60 page document on the eve of the Assises called “Decentralised cooperation for development – European Perspectives”, illustrating the activities carried out by LRAs in the field of international co-operation.

 Website: www.platforma-dev.eu