16th Session of the Council of Europe Conference Ministers responsible for local and regional government Utrecht, The Netherlands - 16 and 17 November 2009

Photo : Family photo, Conference of Ministers, Utrecht Challenges for good local and regional governance in times of crises and change The Congress participated in the discussions and contributed, in particular, to the reform debate regarding effective implementation of local and regional policies in the framework of Council of Europe activities, to questions of regionalisation and transfrontier co-operation as well as to awareness raising programmes and measures to activate citizen participation, such as the European Local Democracy Week (ELDW). The Congress delegation headed by acting President Ian Micallef (Malta) included Vice-Presidents Dubravka Suica (Croatia), Jean-Claude Frecon (France) and Onno van Veldhuizen (The Netherlands), President of the Institutional Committee Keith Whitmore (United Kingdom), President of the Culture and Education Committee Karl-Heinz Lambertz (Belgium) and Chair of the Working Group on Regions with Legislative Powers Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe (Belgium). Documents Utrecht Declaration Speeches Interviews Press Releases Website of the Conference Contacts Communication Division +33 (0)3 88 41 38 44 congress.com@coe.int

The Congress - a partner of governments in Utrecht
Ian Micallef: ''Governments should be more active in implementing Congress recommendations'' (more...)	Ministerial conferences offer an opportunity for interaction between three ties of governance, says Keith Whitmore (more...)

Regional Democracy : A new Reference Framework
Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe: ''The reference framework on regional democracy is an encouraging compromise'' (more...)	Council of Europe Reference Framework for Regional Democracy

The Kiviniemi Report
Jean-Claude Frécon and Keith Whitmore: Congress leads in monitoring territorial democracy, Ministers responsible for acting up on its recommendations (more...)	Kiviniemi Report    Speech by Jean-Claude Frécon (in French only)    Common position between the Congress and the Parliamentary Assembly

Citizen participation
Congress and EU-Committee of the Regions join their forces for Local Democracy Week (more...)	Kathrin Hilber: “Local authorities need to prove that they are serious about citizen participation” (more...)	Ank Bijleveld-Schouten : ''The European Local Democracy Week calls for innovative methods to increase citizen participation'' (more...)
The Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority Report on the European Local Democracy Week

The official texts
Ministers adopt the Utrecht Agenda on the establishment of good local and regional governance for 2010-2013 (more...) Transfrontier co-operation and citizens participation at the heart of two new Council of Europe treaties (more...)	Utrecht Declaration    Protocol No. 3 to the European outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning Euroregional Co-operation Groupings (ECGs)    The Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority