ALDE-PACE News
Liberal politician awarded local democracy prize
Keith Whitmore, President of the ILDG and President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, was awarded the Emperor-Maximilian-Prize on Saturday 2 June in Innsbruck. The award acknowledges Mr Whitmore's outstanding services to promote regional and local democracy at the European level. For more than 30 years, Mr Whitmore has been firmly engaged in fostering local governance and empowering communities to take up challenges that the European societies have to face.
Reinforcing decentralisation, implementing human rights, enhancing citizen participation in democracy, these are the most praised achievements of local and regional politics in recent years, and the Congress has played a key role in implementing them, the winner said. "Our emphasis on promoting human rights at the grassroots, on fostering democratic citizenship and intercultural dialogue to deal better with cultural diversity, on increasing citizen participation and on pursuing local integration for better social cohesion - these are different aspects of our efforts to make local and regional action meet national and European priorities of the day. Today, this is the key message of the Congress - responsibility in common, solidarity, coherence: every actor has to play its role and to contribute. This is also what multi-level governance is all about."
The Emperor-Maximilian-Prize was inaugurated in 1997. Since then, each year it rewards a person dedicated to reinforcing the role of the regions and communes at the European level. Special attention is paid to efforts aiming to consolidate the principle of subsidiarity and the content of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.
Added on 05-06-2012
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