Having always been in favour of increasing regional autonomy, the Congress regularly studies its development and is intending to prepare a new report on the subject, as the previous one dates back to 2013. On Wednesday 16 October, the Chamber of Regions discussed some particularly successful examples of asymmetrical regional autonomy. From the Baltic to the Atlantic, they demonstrate all its benefits, both for the regions and for the countries they belong to.
The Speaker of the Parliament of Åland (Finland), Jörgen Pettersson, showed how the special regional autonomy of the islands, with their Swedish culture and language, had enabled them to develop since 1922 in keeping with their special features, while avoiding conflict between Sweden and Finland. “Everyone benefits from the status, and Åland is a place of balance in the heart of the Baltic,” he said, while listing the powers of the islands, some of which were worthy of a real state, but were always in harmony with those of the Finnish Republic.
The specific features of the Azores (Portugal) stem from their geographical isolation and climate, which create living conditions that are very different from those in mainland Portugal. “Since 1976, our special status has enabled us to fight under-development while pursuing policies better suited to the constraints of our environment,” said the Vice-President of the Regional Government of the Azores, Artur Lima. The status had also weakened secessionist movements in relation to central government, while demonstrating perfectly that autonomy was viable under a subsidiarity approach. In conclusion, he said that the Azores were a fully-fledged European region, and its people were proud to be Azoreans, Portuguese and Europeans, adding that no European citizens should be disadvantaged because of where they lived.
In the Basque Country, special regional autonomy is combined with fiscal and financial autonomy
Mikel Anton Zarragoitia, European Affairs Director of the Basque Government, described the operation and the specific features of his region, including the link between the “historic territory”, the three Basque provinces and the municipalities. The Basque tax system, which was different from that in Spain, and the financial agreements and relationships between the Basque Country and Spain were unique examples in Europe that made for the effective exercise of particularly extensive autonomy. However, the Basque government did note that these processes were sometimes threatened by a trend towards recentralisation. In any case, he said in conclusion, the Basque example showed that a state did not need to be uniform to work well and that multilevel governance proved its effectiveness on a daily basis. Lastly, Belgian youth delegate Boris Lennaertz pointed out that regional autonomy could also involve a linguistic status, or the status of a capital city – that was the case of Brussels, which was the Belgian capital and a fully-fledged region that was also officially bilingual, with French and Dutch being used without distinction.
Regional autonomy in Europe: progress and setbacks
In commenting on these successful models, Frédéric Bierry (France, L, EPP/CCE) nevertheless pointed out that some other regions in Europe had seen their autonomy decline or disappear. In particular, that was the case of Alsace (France), which had lost its status as a fully-fledged region in 2015 and become part of the new “Greater East” region, “without any consultation by the French government of Alsatian elected representatives or voters.” In his view, that was a “flagrant breach” of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. He added that, according to polls conducted by the current European Community of Alsace (CEA), which he headed, 92% of Alsatians wanted the restoration of a fully-fledged region outside the Greater East region. While regional autonomy eased tensions, he pointed out that, conversely, “refusing to listen to people encouraged extremes.” In contrast, he praised the “maturity” of Swiss regional democracy, which had recently enabled the municipality of Moutier to be “transferred” from the canton of Berne to the canton of Jura.
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