Yesterday, around 300 delegates gathered at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Kleve for the district assembly, the general meeting of the North Rhine-Westphalia District Council (LKT NRW).
Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 19 November 2014: Yesterday, around 300 delegates gathered at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Kleve for the district assembly, the general meeting of the North Rhine-Westphalia District Council (LKT NRW).
Professor Dr Meinhard Miegel, Chairman of the Board of the ‘Denkwerk Zukunft’ Foundation in Bonn, focused on ensuring the future viability of the districts’ regions, particularly with regard to the challenges of demographics and infrastructure.
The topic chosen by Minister-President Hannelore Kraft for her speech was ‘Strong districts – indispensable for the future of rural areas in North Rhine-Westphalia’. LKT NRW President Thomas Hendele emphasised that, in addition to their self-governing duties, the districts also carried out state tasks professionally and competently and were entitled to appropriate state support. He lamented the financial imbalance in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was at the expense of rural areas: Although around 60 per cent of the population lived in these areas, they received only 45 per cent of the state’s key allocations. A number of financial policy reports setting out options for action are now available, but these have only been partially implemented by the state. President Hendele called for a reorientation of local government funding in North Rhine-Westphalia without any preconceived notions and proposed to the Minister-President that a North Rhine-Westphalia finance summit be convened. The state government and the leading local government associations should come together for this, with the involvement of experts, with the following objectives:
All towns and districts must receive sufficient funding to enable them to exercise the local self-government enshrined in the Basic Law.
The criteria for determining which local authorities receive increased support from the state due to their particularly poor financial situation must be redefined. In any case, this need is by no means limited to the municipalities covered by the ‘Stärkungspakt’ (Strengthening Pact).
Taking into account developments at federal level, the funding of integration support in North Rhine-Westphalia must be permanently restructured.
In the forthcoming reorganisation of federal-state financial relations, due to take place by 2019/2020, the financial interests of local authorities must be given due consideration.
The delegates at the District Assembly confirmed the President of the LKT NRW, District Administrator Thomas Hendele (Mettmann District, CDU), the First Vice-President, District Administrator Dr Arnim Brux (Ennepe-Ruhr District, SPD) and the Second Vice-President, District Administrator Thomas Kubendorff (Steinfurt District, CDU) in their posts.
