The European Week of Local Democracy (ELDW), coordinated by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, will be held 15 - 21 October 2018. This year, the theme of the ELDW is "Citizen participation, consultation and engagement: for local democracy to flourish", with a particular focus on children’s and young people’s awareness and commitment. This annual pan-European event aims to foster dialogue between citizens and public authorities, to exchange ideas, set priorities and reflect on how to improve the system of governance at local level.
Some 50 local authorities from 16 Council of Europe member States have already committed themselves for the 2018 edition to organising actions around this theme and disseminate the principles of participatory democracy and human rights. An Internet platform also makes it possible to list the participating local authorities and their partner associations, as well as to share the many actions carried out within the framework of the ELDW.
From the initiative of the city of Södermöre (Sweden) to create a "citizens' committee", enabling residents to participate in public debate, to the setting up in Bischwiller (France) of a quiz on local democracy and Europe among pupils, these activities reflect the diversity of ways of raising awareness local democracy and the values of the Council of Europe as closely as possible to citizens and from an early age.
