On Tuesday 24 November 2020, the Congress is organising a webinar on consultation mechanisms between central, local and regional authorities. As part of the Congress' South-Med Partnership, this online event will bring Congress members together with representatives of national associations of local and regional authorities and national authorities from the two Congress Partner Countries for Local Democracy: Morocco and Tunisia.

Dialogue and consultation of local and regional authorities by central authorities are key principles embodied by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, making it possible to strengthen democratic systems and improve decision-making and public policies.

What are central governments’ existing mechanisms for consulting municipalities? How can dialogue between different levels of governance be increased? These are questions that will be addressed during this webinar, with the aim of presenting the Congress’ work in this field as well as Council of Europe member States’ experiences and to discuss the state of consultation in Morocco and Tunisia.

The webinar will also allow for an exchange on practical difficulties and potential solutions to improve consultation as the event will be attended by representatives of several European associations of local and regional authorities.

This webinar is part of the South-Med Partnership programme adopted by the Congress in 2017, the purpose of which is to support territorial reforms and strengthen decentralised governance in beneficiary neighbouring countries. This programme contributes to implementing the local and regional dimension of the Council of Europe policy towards neighbouring regions, in particular the Neighbourhood Partnerships with Morocco and with Tunisia (2018-2021). The activities organised in this framework benefit from financial support by Liechtenstein, Norway and Spain