Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The Group of Independent Experts on the Charter of Local Self-Government held its annual meeting in Strasbourg on 24 and 25 September 2015, with Prof. Angel-Manuel Moreno Molina (Spain) in chair. The experts discussed several activities under way, including one on the state of local and regional democracy and another on trends in regionalisation in Council of Europe member states. The group also held an in-depth exchange of views concerning an analysis of the decisions on the application of the Charter of Local Self-Government taken by the highest national courts. In particular, the experts took note of the March 2015 decision by the Italian Constitutional Court and the more general finding that it was important to monitor very closely the conditions of application of the Charter in all the states which have ratified it. The initial conclusions of this cross-cutting activity are due to be presented when the Congress Monitoring Committee meets in February 2016.