The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will hold its 47th session from 15 to 17 October in Strasbourg, France. On this occasion, the Congress will hold a special debate on Wednesday 16 October to mark the 10th anniversary of its ‘Rejuvenating Politics’ pioneering initiative aimed at engaging youth delegates in its work and integrating youth perspectives in local and regional democratic life.
The session’s agenda features debates on protecting Ukraine’s cultural heritage during Russia’s war of aggression, with the online participation of Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytskyi, as well as on the key challenges faced by local and regional authorities over the past five years. The Congress will also debate monitoring reports on the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Finland, Iceland, Latvia and Malta, as well as on the observation of local elections in Türkiye on 31 March 2024.
Ageing communities (ensuring quality social care for older persons), fostering circular economy at the grassroots (with an emphasis on reuse and recycling of resources to fight overconsumption), the situation of regions with special status, local democracy as a pillar of peace and stability in South-East Europe, the role of local elected representatives in protecting human rights and the role of regions in Ukraine’s reconstruction, as well as efforts to expand the outreach of the Local Self-Government Charter to cities in non-member states (such as Kazakhstan, Mauritania and Morocco) are among other themes of session debates.
Congress members will exchange views with Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset, who will address the Congress for the first time since taking office, as well as with Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of the Interior Arnoldas Abramavičius on behalf of his country’s Committee of Ministers Presidency, and President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Theodoros Rousopoulos.
Among other invited guests are Iceland’s Minister of Infrastructure Svandís Svavarsdóttir; Latvia’s Minister for Smart Administration and Regional Development Inga Bērziņa; Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation of Ukraine Anastasia Bondar; State Secretary to Finland’s Minister of Local and Regional Government Kristiina Kokko; Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (France) Mattias Guyomar; Chair of the Kharkiv Regional Council (Ukraine) and President of the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils Tetyana Yehorova-Lutsenko; and Speaker of the Parliament of Åland (Finland) Jörgen Pettersson.
Also addressing the session will be Mayor of Bar (Montenegro) and President of NALAS (network of local authorities’ associations in South-East Europe) Dušan Raicevic; Mayor of Porto (Portugal) Rui Moreira; Vice-President of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region (France) Patrick Molinoz; as well as Deputy Mayor of Astana (Kazakhstan) Yesset Baiken, Deputy Mayor of Rabat (Morocco) Rahma Ouazzani Taibi and member of the Regional Council of Nouakchott (Mauritania) Ahmed Salem Dekle.
The Congress session is open to media strictly upon prior accreditation. The deadline for applying for accreditation is Monday, 14 October 2024, 12h00 CET.
The session can be followed live in English, French, German, Italian, Turkish and Ukrainian at https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/home.
Draft agenda and the session’s documents as well as videos and photos are available on the Session’s dedicated page.
Contact: Tatiana Baeva-Frachon, Media Officer, Directorate of Communications, Council of Europe, +33 3 88 41 21 41.
