“Municipalities – both urban and rural are at the forefront of meeting the challenges facing our societies over the coming years”, stated President of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress, Bernd Vöhringer (Germany, EPP/CCE) during the Round table discussion on “Current Challenges for Urban and Rural Municipalities: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond”, organised by LoGov – Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay on 13-14 October 2022 in Munich (Germany).

President Vöhringer presented the longstanding commitment by Congress to promote and support sustainable urban development through the European Urban Charter II – Manifesto for a new urbanity adopted in 2008. Speaking about the importance of the revision of the European Urban Charter II in line with the Congress priorities for 2021-2026, he underlined 4 key areas of societies which will be in the focus of this revision: democratic; resilient and cohesive; sustainable and digital. “The revised Urban Charter III will be adopted by the Congress during its 45th Plenary Session in October 2023. “, he added.

President Vöhringer also stressed the monitoring on the implementation of the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the observation of local and regional elections as regular activities of the Congress to strengthen democracy in Europe‘s urban and rural municipalities.