"In the fight against the pandemic, the competences of local governments have sometimes been re-centralised or disproportionately controlled by central governments," warned Co-rapporteurs Leendert Verbeek (Netherlands, SOC/V/DP) and Robert Gruman (Romania, EPP/CCE) during the online event "Covid-19: local and regional authorities on the front line", held on 7 December 2020. "Local authorities have often had to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 without sufficient financial resources and some decisions concerning them have been adopted without proper consultation," they stressed.

These situations reflect a flaw in good governance and have led the Congress to decide to prepare a report on the respect of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in situations of major crisis, which will be submitted for adoption at its next plenary session in 2021.

"This constitutes a violation of the Charter's fundamental principles, a legally binding instrument which has been ratified by all 47 member States of the Council of Europe. This means that states must apply the Charter under any circumstances and even more so in times of crisis," Mr Verbeek and Mr Gruman underlined.

Referring to the Athens Declaration issued following the November 2020 session of the Committee of Ministers, they highlighted that "the political philosophy behind this declaration is the same as that on which the work of the Congress is based. "The crisis has revealed that the effectiveness of pandemic responses depends on the quality of multi-level governance. It has shown that decentralised structures allow for rapid and flexible responses, adapted to the population's real local needs," the Congress Co-Rapporteurs concluded.

*** « Covid-19: local and regional authorities at the frontline » – 7 December 2020 ***
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