Press Release, photographs, May 24, 2013

Yesterday, on May 23, two meetings with Mrs Flo Clucas, Adviser to the Mayor of Liverpool on EU funding programmes, UK, were held in YABLOKO’s office. In the first meeting Mrs Clucas met with members and activists of YABLOKO’s Gender Faction, and in the second meeting she spoke to YABLOKO’s municipal deputies and candidates for deputies, party activists and experts on the problems of municipal governing of large cities in the UK such as Liverpool

During the first meeting, Mrs Clucas told how in the beginning of the 20th century her grandmother fought for equality of women’s rights with men. She also spoke about the situation with women’s right in the UK in general.

During the second meeting, Mrs Clucas spoke about her many years of experience in the Liverpool City Council as a municipal deputy.

She noted that a responsibility to inform citizens of the decisions of the Council and explain how these decisions would influence their everyday living was one of the key responsibilities of the Council members. Also City Council members should learn the residents’ opinions on the main issues of city life, collaborate with local organisations and conduct campaigns for protection of the residents’ interests.

Mrs Clucas also said that her first project had been protection of the residents of her district from the construction of a facility for manufacturing of sausage wraps next to residential housing. Intense fighting lasted for about 18 months, but it resulted in a victory of the residents.

Mrs Clucas noted that a feedback with the residents, maintaining constant communication with residents, availability of a municipal deputy for such contacts, as well as continuous contacts with local media and organisations were the priorities in her work. Thus, every citizen, every company and school had her contact information and could get in touch with her 24 hours a day.

“Feedback is very important, otherwise you will not know how efficient your work is,” Flo Clucas said.

Advisor to the Mayor of Liverpool also spoke about the housing situation in the city. According to Mrs Clucas, the housing problem was very acute in the city, despite the fact that after the Second World War many residents had been moved to better houses through a local councils’ programme. Then many residents had complained about poor living conditions and unsatisfactory performance of public utilities services. Mrs Clucas also told a funny story illustrating the work of the City Council of that time. A woman asked the Council to fix a leaking roof. However, instead of repairing the roof they set her a new bath. When a reporter of the BBC covering the story asked her why they had installed a new bath for her instead of repairing the roof, she replied, “Obviously so that to collect water from the leaking roof”.

According to Mrs Clucas, after the Liberals were elected to the Council, they began looking for new solutions of the housing repairs problem. Estimates showed that repairs of the total housing stock would take about 600 million pounds, while the annual budget of the Council amounted to only 10 million pounds. However, the deputies of the Council managed to improve the work of the housing and utilities control department. In addition, the Council applied to housing associations and non-profit organisations engaged in housing renovation for aid. Part of this property was transferred for management to these organisations, and some to the management of housing cooperatives, that later began managing the housing on a commercial basis. Now the residents have the right to elect five directors to the boards of such housing associations.

Advisor to the Mayor of Liverpool also spoke about how the deputies were trying to attract citizens to cooperation with the Council and the work of deputies with the city Mayor.

In the second half of the meeting, Mrs Clucas answered questions from the participants. Among the most interesting questions was the question on inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations in Liverpool.

According to Mrs Clucas, the main problem was a problem that had not been solved for 20 years and was associated with a large influx of refugees from Somalia because of the outbreak of the civil war there. The Somali community in Liverpool has reached almost 20,000 people. The Council organized a special team to help these people. They are provided both medical and other assistance, including English language training courses and integration into the local environment.

Representatives of Moscow initiative groups of residents also asked the guest how to make the fight against construction works in the Moscow parks more efficient. According to Mrs Clucas, the residents need to collect as many signatures of the residents protesting against construction works in the protected areas as possible and involve residents in such protests.

Answering the question about her attitude to the only woman Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, Flo Clucas noted that there were two types of attitude to Mrs Thatcher: either love or hate. However, Mrs Clucas noted that her attitude lied in between these two extremes, because “some of the things made by Margaret Thatcher were great, but some just awful”.

(from left to right) Galina Mikhaleva, head of YABLOKO’s Gender faction, an interpreter, Flo Clucas, Olga Radayeva, International Secretary.

Flo Clucas is an Advisor to the Mayor of Liverpool on European Funding and is Chair of the Mayoral Commission on EU Funding.

A Liverpool City Councillor from 1986 to 2012, Flo has held Executive Councillor roles in a number of areas: Environment; Health; Social Care; Community Safety; Housing; Economic Development and Finance. She has been actively involved at a senior level in EU funding programmes for the city and metropolitan area and has helped to bring millions of euro into the city.

Flo was a member of the EU’s Committee of the Regions from 2002 to 2012. In that role, she was President of the ALDE Group; President of the Ad Hoc Commission on the EU Financial

Framework 2014-20 and has been Rapporteur on a number of dossiers: Housing and Regional Policy; Maritime Safety; Medium Term Financial Framework; 6th Progress Report on Cohesion.

She was recently elected President of ALDE GEN, the gender equality network and was President of the Women’s International Centre for Economic Development in Liverpool, the first such centre in the world.

She was appointed OBE by the Queen in 2005 and Cavaliere of the Order of Italian Solidarity in 2009. She has been a Justice of the Peace since 1994.