Institutional leadership is an essential requirement for the provision of good governance. Twenty-two mayors from a diverse group of Hungarian municipalities joined a series of training sessions in the context of the Leadership Academy Programme (LAP), with the support of the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance. The first session was organised on 12-14 June in Budapest.

The programme aims to enhance the leadership capabilities in Hungarian local governments. From June-December 2023, two cohorts of elected officials and senior staff of Hungarian municipalities will participate in the Leadership Academy, which builds on the values, principles and standards for good democratic governance of the Council of Europe.

Key themes covered are core leadership and management capacities and their application with particular regard to the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance, Public Ethics, Performance Management and Local Finance Management. The programme, hosted by the Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities (TÖOSZ), is highly interactive and designed to support peer learning, sharing ideas and building networks for ongoing collaboration. 

The Leadership Academy Programme is one of the capacity building components of the project ‘Local Government Public Finance Development and Municipal Capacity Building in Hungary’ project, co-funded by the European Commission’s DG REFORM via the Technical Support Instrument 2022 and implemented by the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance.