Home / News / In-depth news / Democracy

Governance and citizenship

Democracy - 21.05.2006

What future for local and regional government in Greece?

KEDKE, the Greek local government association, has organised a conference entitled Local Government: vehicle for democracy, social change and development" together with the Athens Development and Governance Institute and the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, on 19th and 20th May in Delphi.

The high level conference looked at a range of ideas for strengthening local and regional democracy. There was very strong support for ideas to enhance the role and capacity of local and regional government in Greece - but not yet a clear consensus on the best way to achieve this. But the conference was unique in bringing together a wide range of senior politicians and experts to debate the key options for the future.

Among the key issues debated were the following:

Should local government have more competences and resources (Greek local government has been allocated a very small percentage of the national budget till the present)?
Should there be more mergers of smaller local authorities, to provide fewer but stronger ones?
Should the over 50 second level district authorities (nomoi) be integrated with the regional level (periferia) - if so, should there be more regions, or the same number with subdivisions?
Should the president of the regions be elected by the people directly? - at present, he/she is nominated by the central government.

The President of KEDKE, Mr Koukoupoulos, Mayor of Kozani, made a powerful speech in which he called for a shift away from excessive centralism, to enable Greek local authorities to have more resources and powers.

The Prime Minister of Greece, Mr Karamanlis, addressed the conference, emphasizing the importance of local democracy in the modern world, and pointing out that his government has in fact increased the resources and responsibilities of local authorities. He indicated a willingness to listen and seek a consensus way forward.

The conference also received a message from the leader of the Opposition, Mr Papandreou, also underlining the need for local governments to have more resources, and saying that a radical devolution was essential for the reform of the state.

CEMR's Secretary-General, Jeremy Smith, informed the conference of the conclusions of the recent Innsbruck congress, and underlined that local government involves far more than local administration - it needs a wide range of competences, institutional capacity, good leadership and - of course - adequate finances.

Mr Pellegrini, Vice-President of CEMR's Italian section, AICCRE, also emphasized the importance of the European dimension of local government.