“Democracy at grassroots level is not static, it demands continuous improvement; it demands constant attention; it simply demands care”, said Andreas KIEFER, Secretary General of the Congress, while extending his congratulations to Georgian mayors and councillors on their success in the elections of October 2017, at the General Assembly of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG), in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 8 December 2017. Today NALAG elected a new President and board for a mandate of four years. Representing the international community together with EU Ambassador Janos HERMAN, the Secretary General of the Congress, confirmed the continuing support of the Congress for NALAG and the readiness to contribute to the development of the decentralisation strategy currently prepared by the Ministry for Regional Development and Infrastructure. The new President of NALAG, Kakha KALADZE, Mayor of Tbilisi, expressed his wish to closely co-operate with the Congress. NALAG was established in 2004 under the auspices of the Congress. Addressing the General Assembly, the Congress Secretary General pointed out that the relations between the Congress and NALAG were a success story. “Active associations such as NALAG are the legitimate representation and defender of the interests of local authorities in the dialogue and in formalised consultation schemes with the national governments”, he highlighted. Mr KIEFER mentioned two recent examples of good co-operation, among them being the study to assess existing mechanisms of citizen engagement developed jointly by NALAG and the Congress for increased participatory democracy in Georgia; and the Memorandum of Understanding between the Associations of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine signed in Kyiv in June 2017, under the auspices of the Congress. “We trust that it will allow the associations to increase their capacities to better advocate and to bring forward innovative practices in the region”, he concluded.
News 2017
