Conference :
« LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND THEIR DIFFERENT STATUSES»

 WENESDAY 9 & THURSDAY 10 JUNE 2010

Communes, the basic local authorities, are the only level of decentralised authorities that exist everywhere in Europe. However, various situations come along with such a generalisation. Amongst communes, particular attention must be paid to one specific type: the capital-cities.
Indeed, capital-cities are specific local authorities since they bring shelter to the State institutions and quite often they are the country’s biggest urban area. Central government reacts differently to these socio-political particularities. In some cases it sees them as "ordinary" communes whilst in others it grants them a specific status, or even an ad hoc status. With a comparative approach (at least at two levels within the Sates, but also between Western and Eastern Europe), the conference will analyse the different solutions central government in various countries has set up in order to determine whether general explanatory factors exist (for example is there a link between the form of government and the status of the capital ?) or whether national traditions prevail over everything else.
In addition to the capital-cities’ distinctiveness, one can observe that European municipal authorities are significantly changing status. Central government is more and more eager to take the social, economic and geographic environment in which communes develop into account. A fundamental distinction appears a priori between rural communes and urban communes. By comparing the different options central government has taken across the European Union, the conference will illustrate the grounds for this statutory differentiation process; also, the research that has been undertaken is to raise the issue of whether common features exist about the way urban and rural territories should be dealt with.
In fine, the large diversity in local authorities’statuses will be demonstrated and even if communes are the type of local authorities which is spread out most commonlyin Europe, it doesn’t necessarily mean that, in reality, they are homogenous and legal entities.