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CEMR Members’ Associations Meet in Bursa, Türkiye for Secretaries General and Directors Meeting

CEMR Secretaries General and Directors (SGDs) will convene in Bursa, Türkiye, on 16th and 17th November. The agenda of the meeting will be followed by two days of intensive roundtable discussions covering key topics such as Statutory affairs, preparations for the Policy Committee meeting on 6th-7th December in Prague, and Calendar activities. Delegates will delve into Achievements and Progress in CEMR Policy, share updates, and discuss ongoing and upcoming projects integral to CEMR’s vision.
 
The gathering includes a cultural immersion with a visit to Bursa’s old town and a meeting with the Mayor of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality at the iconic Historical Building in the Orhanbey district, offering an additional platform for networking and collaborative discourse. This SGDs meeting serves as a crucial milestone preceding the Policy Committee meeting in Prague, where political leaders will discuss the outcomes of the Bursa meeting, shaping the trajectory of European local governance.
 
The biannual SGDs meetings bring together Secretaries General and Directors of CEMR members, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration across European local and regional governance.

OKKALI AKTAS Ayben

Officer – Statutory Affairs & Event

A new Secretary General for CEMR: Fabrizio Rossi

The CEMR is very pleased to welcome Fabrizio Rossi as its new Secretary General. Elected on 20 January 2022 by CEMR’s Policy Committee, Mr Rossi takes over from Frédéric Vallier. Speaking of his new position, Mr Rossi said: “I want to make a contribution to addressing the main challenges humankind is currently facing by working hand in hand with territories and local communities in Europe and across the world.”

As Secretary General, Mr Rossi will work on the whole range of issues faced by local governments and their citizens. “The challenges are great and plenty – building local solutions to current and future crises, promoting peace and security, decarbonising European territories and societies, reducing social inequality and many others”, he said.

A career in service of local governments and sustainability

Born and raised in Italy, Mr Rossi graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Cagliari, his hometown, and completed his education in Spain with a master’s degree in European and international cooperation from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Mr Rossi has worked with local and regional governments across Europe throughout his career. After his studies, he became an EU affairs advisor for the Regional Parliament of Sardinia. A year later, working for the Barcelona Provincial Council, Mr Rossi took the leadership of Partenalia, a European association representing provincial authorities.

Besides his work with local governments, Mr Rossi has been a social entrepreneur active in environmental issues such as forest restoration and climate change. He founded a start-up focused on reforestation projects in Madagascar which later expanded to Bolivia.

Before joining CEMR, Mr Rossi was an Innovation Orchestrator and Head of Programmes for the Land Use Area in Climate-KIC, the main climate innovation initiative of the European Union. Prior to that, he worked for INTERACT, an EU-funded project facilitating cross-border cooperation across Europe.

Supporting Ukrainians in the face of Russia’s war

Mr Rossi’s term of office began in tragic circumstances with the launch of Russia’s war against Ukraine. One of his first decisions was to set up a taskforce with CEMR members to exchange and coordinate on how to best support Ukraine.

The taskforce is working on issues such as financial and logistical support to Ukrainian municipalities, the hosting of refugee and EU sanctions and the consequences for procurement and cooperation with Russian municipalities.

“In the face of this horrifying situation, we are prouder than ever of the work we have implemented so far together with our friends in Ukraine”, Mr. Rossi said. “Cooperation will not stop and we are getting ready to build new bridges to support the Ukrainian people.”

ROSSI Fabrizio

Secretary General

CEMR secretary general Frédéric Vallier ends his mandate

On 31 January 2022, Frédéric Vallier ended his second mandate as secretary general of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). In a letter addressed to the CEMR members, partners, friends and colleagues, he looks back on 12 years at the service of local and regional governments in Europe.

“After two mandates serving local and regional governments and their associations, it is now time to say good bye, it has been an honour to serve CEMR for those last 12 years. I would like to thank all of you for the confidence you gave me along all these years.

I leave with the feeling of that I did the job, bringing CEMR secretariat from 20 to close to 40 collaborators, strengthening its finances, placing it at the centre of representation of Local and Regional Governments in Europe while giving space to partnerships with allies, other networks of local and regional governments in Europe and the World, the institutions, academics and civil society organisations.

I would like to thank my colleagues and former colleagues who supported me all along these years, the “dream team” from the secretariat for the work done, I have tried to be a fair manager, giving each staff member the possibility to develop their ideas and projects in the best manner, sometime pushing them to the maximum to give their best, launching new ideas that came up in one of my troubled nights. I would like also to thank all the colleagues from member associations for their support and understanding, it was not always easy but I enjoyed the discussions and debates to find sound compromises respecting the diversity we represent.

CEMR is a family, and like in every family, we have debates and discussions with good shared moments and sometimes also more difficult times. It has been the main part of my life those past 12 years.

Along these years, we have built a strong organisation, recognised by the European and International institutions, thanks to our mobilisation for Sustainable development, Cohesion, the fight against Climate change, International cooperation to name a few of the issues where our action had a meaningful impact to support the building of a fairer Europe.

Equality has been a driver for me, and I am particularly proud that we made this organisation the first one to apply equality of women and men in its statutory bodies, there are still progress to be made obviously but I think we contributed greatly in promoting equality and diversity in both our political leadership and our secretariat.

I would like to thank our partners with whom we have reinforced the role of local and regional governments in the governance of Europe and at global level: our sister organisations, UCLG and all the regional sections, NALAS, but also the AER, ABRE, CPMR and Eurocities with whom we have built meaningful coalitions; Climate Alliance, Energy cities, Fedarene, Iclei Europe, our partners on the European and Global Covenant of Mayors, Climate Chance and Iclei World with whom we have ensured the representation of LRGs in International Climate fora; our 30 partners from Platforma including the AIMF, CLGF, UCLG, UCLGA who share with us the priviledge to be strategic partners of the European Development Policy, the successive teams of Devco and Intpa who helped us strengthening this strategic partnership; the Members of the European Parliament, in particular the Chairs and members of the AGRI, BUDG, DEVE, ENVI, FEMM, LIBE, REGI Committees; Jan Olbrycht and the members of the Urban Intergroup; the European Movement International where we bring the voice of LRGs and who brings the voices of citizens in our meetings and work; our institutional partners, the Congress of Local and Regional governments and the Committee of the Regions; the OECD, UN Habitat and other UN agencies; OLA with whom we have published so many studies and research. And all the others I might have forgotten in this long list…

I would like to pay tribute to the elected representatives who give their time and energy voluntarily to the organisation, in particular the Presidents who have been subjected to my sometime iconoclastic ideas and my repeated requests for representation in this or that meeting: Michael Häupl, Wolfgang Schuster, Annemarie Jorritsma, Inigo de la Serna and Stefano Bonaccini.

I would like to say a special word to my French friends, I want to thank them for their support, in good times as well as in difficult ones.

I leave with a sense of achievement, even if I would have liked to continue, that is no secret, but I take note of the Presidency’s decision and I wish good luck to the new Secretary general, Fabrizio Rossi.

CEMR’s richness lies in its ability to bring together the whole family of local and regional governments, whatever their size, their functions and the status of their country in Europe. I have always regarded national associations with the same respect, there are no small associations in CEMR, there are only members united together to defend democracy and local and regional self-government. There are no members of the European Union and the others because WE are Europe, a Europe united beyond our differences, a Europe made of exchanges, friendships and common battles.

Finally, I wish to thank all those who sent me messages and presents in the last few days, they have warmed my heart!

I wish CEMR the best of luck, we will meet again one day soon because I will not stop carrying the values that are ours.

Thank you all and good luck!”

Frédéric Vallier

ROSSI Fabrizio

Secretary General

SecGen election, debates, papers: a busy agenda for local Europe

And that’s a wrap for the latest gathering of CEMR’s Policy Committee! Over 100 people came to Brussels or joined online to take part in the discussions of our highest decision-making body and set the agenda for local and regional Europe. You can see some memorable highlights from the debates under the hashtag #CEMRmeets.

A new secretary general for CEMR

Say hello to our new secretary general! Fabrizio Rossi has been elected for a six-year term of office at the head of the CEMR. He has extensive experience working with and on behalf of of local and regional governments, including for regional authorities in Sardinia, Barcelona and Scotland.

More recently, Fabrizio Rossi served as secretary general of Partenalia, an association representing counties at EU level, and worked at Climate-KIC, a leading EU climate innovation initiative. In the latter capacity, he managed a portfolio of multifunder programmes and projects contributing to achieving climate-neutral and resilient territories across Europe.

Position papers: setting the advocacy agenda for local and regional Europe

The Policy Committee debated and adopted several position papers which will serve as a basis for our advocacy on a wide range of issues important to local and regional governments. The papers, which will be uploaded to our website, cover the EU’s Fit for 55 decarbonisation plan, digitalisation, migration, EU economic governance, water regulation, mobility and the Conference on the Future of Europe.

What’s more CEMR’s 2022 Work Programme was amended and adopted (see here), outlining our planned activities and policy and legislative priorities for the year. We also presented CEMR’s strategy for externally-funded activities (EFAs), drafted by the secretariat together with several member associations. The strategy will help CEMR secure funding from the European Commission, donors and philanthropists, ultimately contributing to our advocacy, collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

The TERRI Report

Local leaders discussed CEMR’s brand-new report on ‘Territorial Governance, Powers and Reforms in Europe’, or TERRI Report for short. This unique online tool exposes the current state of local government systems in 40 countries and their evolution over the past decade, while also making recommendations for successful territorial reforms. This edition has a special focus on local health systems in light of the pandemic.

Presenting the report’s recommendations, Jan Van Zanen, the mayor of The Hague and the President of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG), argued that territorial reforms devolving responsibilities must be accompanied by economic support. “In the Netherlands, we have faced massive decentralisation since 2015 in the social field, but the central government did not deliver adequate financial transfers”, he said.

Central Bedfordshire Councillor and Chairman of England’s Local Government Association, James Jamieson, said the TERRI Report showed the diversity of Europe’s systems of government and that decentralised countries tend to be more equal and more prosperous. “The pandemic demonstrated that local councils can deliver in a crisis”, he said. “But as we move towards recovery we need a strategic view on role local government can play in tackling challenges such as climate change, automation and an aging population.”

Debate on the Future of Europe

The Policy Committee proper was preceded by a debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe featuring mayors and senior regional, EU and national officals. Municipal leaders highlighted actions they are taking to involve ordinay citizens in this crucial event for the reform of the EU.

See you in Daejeon!

Last but not least, Emilia Saiz Carrancedo, the secretary general of UCLG, presented our global organisation’s upcoming World Congress in Daejeon, South Korea. This global summit of local and regional governments will take place between 10 and 14 October 2022.

OKKALI AKTAS Ayben

Officer – Statutory Affairs & Event