The Congress Monitoring Committee met on 4 July 2023 at the Brandenburg State Parliament located in Potsdam, Germany.

The Committee members examined the preliminary draft recommendations on the application of the European charter of local self-government in the Slovak Republic, Ireland and Estonia. The committee’s agenda also included the approval of the preliminary draft recommendation on local elections in Albania which took place on 14 May 2023.

Moreover, the Committee held a debate and exchange of views on human rights at local level and approved the draft resolutions on the fourth volume of the human rights handbook for local and regional authorities on human centered artificial intelligence as well as on the Congress strategy on Human Rights at local and regional levels.

These draft recommendations and resolutions will be debated for adoption at the next Congress session to be held in Strasbourg, France, from 24 to 26 October 2023.

The rapporteurs on local and regional democracy in the Republic of Moldova informed the Committee about the results of the last post-monitoring visit which took place on 19 June 2023 and which closes the procedure of a post-monitoring dialogue in the country.  

Apart the above-mentioned statutory items of the agenda, the Committee members had an exchange of views on the outcomes of the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe, which took place in May in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

The Committee meeting was preceded by a high-level conference organised by the host authorities on 3 July on “climate action at regional and local level as contribution to human rights protection”.

A Potsdam declaration on shared commitment to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was co-signed on 4 July by the President of the Brandenburg State Parliament and the Chair of the Monitoring Committee.