Assembly President: Congress is a ''laboratory of democracy'' at local and regional level

25.05.2004 - The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities acts as a “laboratory of democracy” at local and regional levels, Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder stressed today at the opening session. “Your initiatives, debates and projects have served to water and fertilize the grass roots, especially where the seeds had fallen on long untended ground,” he said, adding that the Congress country-by-country monitoring in the light of the European Charter of Local Self-Government was an important complement to the monitoring carried out by the Parliamentary Assembly.

Speech