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"

Interviews, photos, videos and Twitter
Democratic participation and good governance

Back Participation of youth delegates in the 32nd Congress session

Participation of youth delegates in the 32nd Congress session
On the occasion of the 32nd Session from 28 to 30 March 2017, the Congress will welcome 44 youth delegates between the ages of 16 and 30, from 44 countries and one observer from the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). The youth delegates will take part in all the debates and meetings alongside Congress members. This is a continuation of an initiative started in 2014 that has proven to be a good practice in directly involving young people in local and regional decision making. The Congress seeks to continue to build on the success of this exercise by exploring how to implement Council of Europe and Congress youth policy on promoting the participation of young people in decision and policy making. To this end, in addition to their participation in the session, for the second year running the youth delegates will develop grassroots projects to be conducted in the period between the two 2017 sessions. 

Youth Delegates List
File 'Youth Activities'
Photo gallery
File '32nd Session'          
Cooperation Strasbourg 30 March 2017
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Agenda and documents
Mediabox

MediaBox is a mobile studio of multimedia resources allowing live radio interviews and video recordings for the web. Congress members can offer this tool to their press contacts who will have access free of charge to all the facilities on offer. Journalists can also use it directly for the coverage of the Congress Session.

Members' Area

Information on the obligations of Congress members, as well as practical details (travel, refunds, interpretation and translations) are available on the "Members' Area" page.

 Members' area

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