The members of the Congress examined a report and a resolution on “Fostering active citizenship by building partnerships with civil society” on 20 October 2015, during its 29th Session. The report's main focus is on implementation of the “Code of good practice for civil participation in the decision-making process” and how to make it more accessible to local and regional authorities. The Code is an initiative of the Council of Europe's Conference of INGOs, adopted in October 2009, and aims to facilitate participation of NGOs in the decision-making process at local, regional and national levels. Having previously pledged to contribute to the promotion of this reference tool, the Congress invited the Conference to review the Code with a view to making it more local authority-friendly. “The Code of good practice for civil participation in the decision-making process, which has benefited from the joint input of our two bodies, must be brought into play”, said Anna Rurka, President of the Conference of INGOs. “But, for this tool to be relevant, we must above all take account of the low level of citizen participation and aspire to governance based on collective efforts, which all too often remains an ideal to be attained”, she added.
