Improving local democracy
ENTO is a European network grouping together the local and
regional authority training establishments of virtually all of
the Council of Europe’s 47 member states.
First thought up by the Council of Europe, ENTO has, since 1995,
been an independent association grouping a very wide variety of
members, among them both organisations with years of training
experience and relatively recent institutions with their own
specialities. From this diversity springs a wide-ranging network
within which members can exchange ideas and pool experience with
other persons or bodies active in the same field, but with a
different fund of knowledge.
Improving public administration
ENTO strives to promote better local democracy, the pillar on
which any democratic society rests, and has enabled some
fundamental reforms to be carried out in a good number of
European countries in recent years, a development which depends
inter alia on the efficiency of officials and elected
representatives at every level.
It therefore supports both the Council of Europe and the
European Union in their efforts to improve the quality of public
administration in Europe, playing its part in those
organisations' programmes of assistance for the countries of
central and eastern Europe.
By ensuring that local and regional authorities have skilled
staff able to perform their duties professionally, lawfully and
democratically, ENTO makes it easier for those authorities to
carry out their tasks.
Improving partnerships between local and regional authorities and training establishments
ENTO thus fosters co-operation by promoting professional discussions and exchanges of information and experience among its members, focusing on the problems facing local and regional authorities and training establishments.
In or and implement certain activities, it offers the assistance and support of other members. In practical terms, it enables bilateral and multilateral partnerships to be set up and makes it possible for the staffs of training bodies and of local and regional authorities to organise courses and study visits, or to take part in official visits, seminars or other activities which take place within the framework of Council of Europe and European Union programmes.
