At its meeting on 28 September 2020, the Congress Bureau decided to cancel the 39th Session which was due to be held from 26 to 27 October 2020. This decision follows a proposal by Congress President Anders Knape and the Presidents of the Chamber of Regions and the Chamber of Local Authorities, respectively Gunn Marit Helgesen (Norway, EPP/CCE) and Xavier Cadoret (France, SOC/V/DP).
"We need to be sure that the videoconferencing platform used is reliable and that it allows full remote participation of all members of our 47 delegations. At this stage, the technical requirements for remote connection and voting are not met," explained the President of the Congress, referring to other options for continuing the work of the Congress, such as organising a Statutory Forum before the end of the year.
A reflection will be carried out in order to examine the possibilities allowing Congress members to pursue the debates held during the meetings of the three Committees (Monitoring, Governance and Current Affairs), in particular concerning the situation of local democracy in the face of the Covid-19 health crisis.
With regard to the elections of the two vice-Presidents of the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Secretary General of the Congress, the Bureau decided that these elections would take place outside the framework of the session, using a secure method that protects the data and the integrity of the vote itself.
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