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Honourable President of the Conference of Local Authorities
Honourable President of the Board of the National Association of Municipal Authorities
Honourable President of the National Association of Parishes
Honourable Representatives of the Local Authorities

I firstly want to compliment the installing committee and the participants in this Conference of Local Authorities, an initiative which I consider particularly timely and in which I took great interest since the very beginning.

At the time that we celebrate, in this year of 2006, the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitution of the Republic, we also celebrate one of the structural principles of our Fundamental Law: the consecration of local autonomy and the option for a legitimately democratic local authority.

Breaking with decades of centralized authority, the authors of the text of the Constitution, in 1976, wanted to establish a founder commitment of that which is most democratic: power must rest with the people. Because it only exists to serve the community, power must have the closest possible relationship with its recipients. I do not hesitate when I stress that local authority is, because of that, one of the most genuine materializations of the idea of democracy.

At the end of these thirty years, we are all agreed that the balance of local authority is truly positive.

When we compare the Portugal that existed thirty years ago with the Portugal we are at the beginning of this century, the balance is clearly favourable.

Younger people will probably not perceive it, but Portugal changed much in the last decades. The democratic route we are proud to have taken in these thirty years has given us more freedom, more development, better living conditions, more social fairness.

However many signs of retardment may still exist, however many imbalances of growth we may still have to fight, however many phenomena of exclusion are still maintained, the Portugal of 2006 is without any doubt a better country than the Portugal of 1976.

The efforts of the local authorities greatly contributed to this achievement. The circumstance that the holders of office in the local authorities were elected by the respective populations was, undoubtedly, the key to the success of this political and administrative experiment. The success of the local authorities was based upon the democratic relationship of proximity created between their representatives and the people.

It can be generally said, today, that the Country has the physical infrastructures and the equipments required for its development and for the improvement in the quality of life of its people, an area in which the local authorities had a very significant role.

It is thus the time to enter into a new phase of the history of democracy in local authorities. A phase which I would designate as the full maturity of the local authorities. In this new stage, the challenges and responsibilities faced by the officers of the local authorities are not any less. The age which is now beginning will consist of less visible works, accomplishments which will probably be less spectacular, but no less important for the well being of the people.

In our age, the representatives of the local authorities have to give increased regard, on the one hand, to the productive capacity and competitiveness of the counties and parishes they manage and, on the other, to the respective social development.

With respect to productive capacity, they are required to guide a larger parcel of their efforts to attract and develop entrepreneurial investments and initiatives. More investment, setting up enterprises and higher added value production signify greater wealth for the local authority, more job opportunities for the people, better economic and social development.

Should the officers of the local authorities not exert themselves in drawing the interest of investors and in settling competitive enterprises, the better qualified human resources will emigrate, the local products will not put to use and capital will be routed to other locations in the national territory or even abroad.

In the background of this challenge with which the local authorities are faced today, it must be stressed that town and country planning is, increasingly, a relevant factor of competitiveness. It is true that we have many plans and not always the better planning. And it is also true that the complexity of our system of town and country planning leads us, at times, to lose competitiveness.

But the alternative cannot be to ignore the relevance of the quality of the environment. We must be able to simplify our system of town and country planning, without this resulting in a lessening of the people’s quality of life and that the sustainability of the development is hindered.

In short, the fight for the economic development of our Country and for the competitiveness of our enterprises is a task that the local authorities cannot ignore. In each parish, in each county, in the spirit of all the officers of local authorities, the existence of a concern for a balanced and durable growth is increasingly important.

But in order that progress be global, another battle must be fought: that of social development.

I believe that local authorities have a special talent and capacity to answer the challenges of social development. The principle of subsidiarity teaches us: proximity, knowledge and nimbleness to find solutions in this area are advantages that ensure more and better answers to present and future social issues.

Issues of poverty and social exclusion, of drug addiction and alcoholism, of the loneliness of the aged, of deficiency or lack of health care, of school abandonment and disqualification of assets are, all of them, issues which cannot be duly prevented and combated without the active involvement of the communities and their local authorities.

I am certain that our local authorities do not wish to be relinquished or to assume a secondary role when the issue is the support of the less favoured and vulnerable of the people they represent.

Experience tells us that, between the central and the local authorities it has been possible to cooperate, in order to provide the communities with the necessary social equipment. Either in the area of social protection and inclusion, or in that of basic education, or even in that of the offer of primary health care, the materialized effort assures us that it is possible and desirable to go further and attribute greater responsibilities to the local authorities, assuring them of the corresponding financial means.

And I also cannot sight who, better than the local authorities, can locally recruit citizens, value voluntaries and the idea of the social responsibility of institutions of the civil society, create environments propitious to the cooperation between local operators, and coordinate efforts and skills, in order that the social objectives which we all wish may be effectively accomplished.

The phase of the construction of infrastructures is being gradually completed, and this is a more than sufficient reason for us to think about a new generation of local policies aimed at other types of needs, at social inclusion, at the qualification and well being of the peoples. The experience which is being developed in the social networks and in the Local Councils for Social Action strengthen the hope that something new is in the offing.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The quality of democracy and the success of governing largely depend upon the relation of trust existing between the operators of political authority, whatever the level in which it is exercised. To ensure this relation of trust requires that a solid set of ethical values be assumed and maintained in order to guarantee the guidance of decisions for the benefit of the public interest.

The special relationship of proximity between the local authorities and the people gives them increased responsibilities in the deepening of the ethical dimension of public life and in the need for transparency and integrity of the institutions and procedures. Their role is thus particularly relevant for the credibility of the political system and for the strengthening of the quality of Portuguese democracy.

This conference, included in the celebrations of the 30 years of Democratic Local Authority, is an opportunity to stress the dynamics and the sense of service to the public cause which characterizes the local authorities, but, more than that, it is an opportunity to find the adequate bearing to defeat the challenges of the future.

This is equally the time to reassert our will to work together for a better Portugal. Better in its whole, but equally better still in each of its parts. In each parish, in each municipality, in the coastal areas, in the interior, in the Continent or in the Autonomous Regions, the North and the South, Portugal has to become a better Country. I am certain the Portuguese can count with the contribution, the exertion, the vision and the work of its local authorities.