GOLD Report I - UCLG

21protect local autonomy and to ensure thatlocal authorities have sufficient human andfinancial resources to meet their responsibilities.The Guidelines draw their inspirationfrom the European Charter of LocalSelf Government, to which the Europeansection of UCLG contributed. The Charter,adopted in 1985 by the Council of Europeand today ratified by 46 countries, is thefirst document of a legal nature at an internationallevel concerning the status andrights of local authorities 2 .The Global Report will allow the readerto consider the problems that may arisein the implementation of these principlesand the way in which these difficultiesmay be surmounted. We thereforeinvite local authorities and their national,regional and international associationsto engage in action with UCLG inorder to:• Circulate this Report and to press aheadwith the dialogue with states on theimplementation of the Guidelines on Decentralizationand the Strengthening ofLocal Authorities.• Ask national governments to supportthe adoption of the Guidelines on Decentralizationand the Strengtheningof Local Authorities by the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations.• Ensure that the principles of the Guidelinesare supported by the regional institutionsin every continent, therebycontributing to their implementation bymember states.• Contribute to furthering global reflectionon local government systems of financingand management of human resources,which UCLG intends to pursue.We would like to thank the experts anduniversity academics who have contributedto this Report, in particular GRALE, whichhas co-ordinated the work and ensured thescientific quality of the project as a whole.Mention must also be made of the supportgiven by UCLG’s regional and metropolitansections, which, through their secretariats,have constantly defended the direction andapproach of the project.We would also like to express our gratitudeto those institutions and local authoritiesthat have contributed to the production ofthis Report, in particular the Generalitat deCatalunya, for their continued supportthroughout the project, the Diputació deBarcelona, the Conseil Régional du Pays dela Loire and the Groupe DEXIA.Without the commitment and collaborationof all these partners, the Report would nothave been possible.World SecretariatUnited Cities andLocal Governments2. The European Charter of Local Self-Government focuses mainly on the following principles:· Regulation and management of a substantial share of public affairs by local authorities, through local elected representatives andcitizen participation;· Right of local authorities to exercise their initiatives with regard to any matter included in their powers and responsibilities and notassigned to any other authority;· Selection and recruitment of local government staff according to merit and competence;· Conditions of office of local elected representatives to allow free exercise of their functions;· Local authorities' financial resources to correspond to the responsibilities determined by the constitution and law, of which they maydispose freely within the framework of their powers;· Administrative supervision of local authorities only to be carried out according to procedures determined by the constitution or by statute;· Entitlement of local authorities to belong to an association for the protection and promotion of their common interests;· Legal protection of local self-government