At their 1364^th meeting, on 15 January 2020, the Ministers’ Deputies adopted a new Statutory Resolution and a revised Charter of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. Initiated by the Congress as a part of its reform process, the revised Charter aims at enhancing the role of the Congress within the institutional structure of the Council of Europe. Amongst numerous changes, it foresees the implementation of Congress activities in Council of Europe Action Plans in member states and comprises an upgrade of the ethical standards for Congress members. The revised Charter also provides for two Congress sessions per year, confirms the right to form political groups and allows member States without regions to send delegates to the Chamber of Local Authorities only. In addition, the mandate of Congress delegates has been increased from 4 to 5 years.

The Deputies also held an exchange of views with Mr Christoph Grabenwarter, Chair of the Advisory Panel of Experts on Candidates for Election as Judge to the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Grabenwarter outlined certain aspects of the Panel's Fourth Activity Report, as well as recent developments since the last exchange of views with the Committee of Ministers in March 2019.^[Note]The Panel was set up in November 2010 by a Resolution of the Committee of Ministers and its mandate is to advise the High Contracting Parties whether candidates for election as judge to the European Court of Human Rights meet the criteria stipulated in Article 21§1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to be able to serve as a judge of the Court. The Panel, as an expert body, does its best to apply, as a minimum threshold, the objective criteria of Article 21 of the ECHR.
Since its creation, the Panel has developed criteria for assessing whether the minimum conditions of Article 21§1 of the Convention are satisfied. These criteria are found in its activity reports, the most recent of which is the 4^th Activity Report covering the period from 1 July 2017 to 7 May 2019.

The other items examined by the Deputies appear in the Agenda and the decisions adopted are available in the meeting file.