“Today, in the context of participatory democracy, dialogue and consultations between different levels of government is a major requirement of any democratic society,” underlined Congress Secretary General Andreas KIEFER, addressing the participants to the workshop on “Consultation mechanisms between local and national authorities”, in Yerevan, Armenia, on 12 September 2018.
“As Armenia advances on the path of decentralisation and strengthening local self-government, the question of setting up an effective framework for regular consultations is becoming one of the priority issues,” he added, stressing the special role played by associations of local authorities in consultation mechanisms.
The Secretary General stressed that such a consultation process between local and national authorities is a fundamental principle of the European Charter of Local Self-Government ratified by Armenia in 2001. The need for its effective implementation is also reiterated in the Recommendation on Local Democracy in Armenia, adopted by the Congress in 2014, and in the roadmap signed with the Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration in 2016.
“In the Congress, we appreciate the commitment of the Armenian Government to building a decentralised governance system in this country,” stated Andreas Kiefer, expressing the hope that the workshop would lay the ground for formalising a consultation framework in Armenia. "As the Congress prepares to assess the progress made since the 2014 recommendation, during its next monitoring mission on the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in 2019, the setting up of such a framework for regular and systematic consultations would be one of the main achievements in the implementation of our recommendation and the Roadmap," he concluded.
