The Basque experience

During 2003, a major innovation has been introduced into the French Constitution, namely the right of experimentation. Local and regional authorities will henceforth be able to innovate by exercising powers that are not systematically assigned to all authorities in their tier of government. In point of fact, the Basque Country started experimenting in this way, behind the back of the Constitution, ten years ago! This was the result of a very unusual move by French standards, which was initiated by a few men but now involves the whole of Basque society. The initial idea came to a subprefect of Bayonne, Christian Sapède. Observing that it was difficult for the main players in political, economic and cultural life to get together and talk, he proposed that everyone should rally round a common project: our vision of the Basque Country in 2010. The top brains in the authority for spatial planning and regional action, DATAR, were enlisted to instruct us in the chosen strategy, and a kind of quiet miracle took place. Elected representatives, company bosses, academics, cultural activists and Basque nationalists talked to each other, exchanged opinions and ideas and realised that they shared the same ambition for their region. So they set about working together.

Ten years on, the Basque Country has become the most dynamic part of the region of Aquitaine. Innovative institutions, procedures and working methods have been introduced: a development council, a council of elected representatives, a cultural institute, a language council, an agricultural coordination body and a cross-border agency have been established, and a specific agreement has been concluded with central government, the regional authorities and the General Council of the Département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. All of this was created at remarkably little expense as it is based more on networking than a proliferation of new bureaucratic structures.

At a time when the great wave of decentralising reforms opens up new vistas for regions such as ours, it is particularly interesting to analyse the lessons that have been learned in these ten years of Basque experience – just as one re-reads the previous chapter of a book to whet one’s appetite for the next one.

Alain Lamassoure, 24 April 2003