In the face of the Covid-19 crisis, local and regional authorities have been at the forefront of the responses to contain the spread of the disease and mitigate the impact of the outbreak on their communities. To hear the stories of those who have been organising, coordinating and delivering responses to the crisis in towns and cities, provinces and Départements, regions and Länder, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe is holding an online event on Monday, 7 December 2020 from 14h30 to 17h00 CET. The results of the discussions will feed into the Congress’ cross-cutting report “Ensuring the respect of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in times of crisis” to be presented to the Congress Session in March 2021.

14h30 - Effectively responding to a public health crisis in full respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law: the Athens Declaration

Building on the 130th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Athens, 4 November 2020 and the ensuing Athens Declaration, this online event will bring together the Council of Europe leaders, representatives of national governments and other personalities to discuss with Congress members the best ways to ensure effective responses to a public health crisis in full respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, through better coordination and interaction between the different levels of government within the multi-level governance system, including the European level.

15h30 - Responding to the crisis – the role of local and regional authorities

Participants will discuss the role of local and regional authorities in responding to the crisis, focusing on success stories in handling the crisis and the lessons learnt from shortcomings and failure. Congress members, youth delegates, Partners for Local Democracy and guest speakers will share their reflections on a number of the complex issues that the pandemic has brought to the fore.

Some questions which will be addressed:

• How to avoid the “lockdown” of territorial democracy and maintain the legitimacy of elected councils and elected representatives when political processes in councils can only be held electronically, when means of consultations with citizens are reduced, and elections postponed.
• How to ensure effectiveness of their action when competences and financial resources are re- centralised.
• How to strike the right balance between centralised and decentralised action which must complement each other in the inter-active multi-level governance system.
• How to improve the role of local and regional authorities within national crisis management, and ensure the competences and means necessary for them to handle the crisis.
• How to ensure that restrictive measures are proportional to the requirements and are implemented under democratic control, to provide transparency and oversight of all aspects of governmental responses, and guard against the closing of civic space.
• How to guarantee the democratic link between mayors or executives and their local or regional assemblies, and the accountability of the executive to their assemblies in a time of crisis.
• How to communicate with citizens, address their needs and support them in times of crisis, and maintain the climate of trust, necessary to better respond to an emergency.