In his communication to the Deputies of the Ministers in Strasbourg on 3 March 2021, the Secretary General of the Congress Andreas Kiefer gave an overview of the Congress activities over the last months and presented the forecast of work for the coming months. He underlined in particular that the Congress has been a pioneer in adapting its working methods to the current sanitary situation notably by introducing remote procedures for the monitoring of the European Charter of Local self-government, the observation of local elections and fact finding missions, such as the one on the situation of LGBTI in Poland. He stressed that the current situation has well shown the need for more multilateralism and multi-level governance, which the Congress fully promotes in its work. “We need to bring all actors together to fight the pandemic, prepare the aftermath and help our societies overcome this huge crisis” he said. He explained that the coming session of the Congress on 23 and 24 March will be a renewal one which will start a new five-year mandate for the national delegations to the Congress and the executive of the assembly, including its new president.  At this first part session, the Congress will adopt its priorities for 2021-2026 and the recommendation on its budgetary needs for the 2 next years and will hold an exchange of views with the representative of the German Presidency of the Committee of Ministers State Minister Michael Roth.  The second part session will take place before the summer break to discuss and adopt thematic reports. The Secretary General underlined that the Congress hoped very much to have a normal in presence session in October this year. The Congress activities are detailed in report CG(2021)40-14 and on its website.