28 to 30 March 2017 - Strasbourg, France

In her communication at the opening of the 32nd Session of the Congress of local and regional authorities, President Gudrun Mosler-Törnström recalled that “local and regional authorities are responsible for carrying out a considerable share of public action in their States”. She expressed concern upon the situation in member States and in particular the situation of local and regional democracy and underlined that “the Europe of democracy and the Europe of values are in danger”. “When I see elected mayors arrested and replaced by civil servants, when I see powers transferred to central governments, when the wind of recentralisation blows, I feel that the great ambition that is ours is undermined” she said, adding that there was no inescapable fate in these trends. She invited local and regional elected representatives and the Congress to mobilise against any form of retreat of local government. “We must invest ourselves in order to convince our capitals that the crises we are going through can be overcome by collective, concerted and concrete action to which we, elected representatives and the Congress, can and must contribute,” she concluded, stressing that progress towards local and regional self-government will represent an important contribution to the democratic stability of the continent.  

Communication by the President of the Chamber of local authorities
Anders Knape : "Political dialogue is an essential part of the work of the Chamber of Local Authorities"

Communication by the President of the Chamber of regions
Gunn Marit Helgesen: "Regional self-government is a way to enhance democracy"

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Back Manuela Bora: 'Open data strengthens local democracy and promotes good governance'

Manuela Bora: 'Open data strengthens local democracy and promotes good governance'
On 30 March 2017, the Congress adopted a report on open data for better public services. Presented by Manuela Bora (Italy, SOC), the report highlights the growing tendency to release and re-use public data to facilitate transparency, enhance public participation and stimulate economic growth. Open data is information which can be freely re-used by anybody, without legal or technical restrictions. The report shows how open data can be a strong engine for improving local governance, with the power to transform cities into more democratic spaces. The topic is also related to the Congress’ 'Roadmap of activities for preventing corruption at local and regional levels'. Open data, by increasing transparency, constitutes a preventing tool in the fight against corruption. 'Publishing this data makes it easier for civil society to scrutinize public spending and detect corruption,' added Manuela Bora The Congress calls upon local and regional authorities to develop strategies to make local authority information datasets open to the entire population and to ensure that data protection and privacy laws are strictly adhered. At national level, the Congress stresses the need to introduce licensing standards and to provide guidelines, as well as to address the risk of a digital gap in open data participation. 

Report CG32(2017)15
Presentation by Manuela Bora
Video
File: 32nd Session of the Congress    
governance Strasbourg 30 March 2017
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