At the invitation of the Belarusian authorities, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe held a round table and several high-level meetings with the Belarusian authorities in Minsk on 11 and 12 September 2018.

The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM met the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander LUKASHENKO, as well as the President of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly Mikhail MIASNIKOVICH on 11 September 2018. She also participated in a seminar organised with students and professors from the Minsk Academy of Public Administration.

On the same day, a seminar brought together Congress members and experts to discuss the situation of local self-government in Belarus, in the light of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. It was opened by the Vice-President of the Congress, Michalis ANGELOPOULOS (Greece, SOC) and the Dean of the Academy of Public Administration, Gennady PALCHIK.

On 12 September, a round table will be devoted to these issues with a view to examining how the principles of the Charter are taken into account in Belarus' local government system, as well as their practical implementation and future prospects. The role of national associations of local authorities will be presented, in particular, by Leendert VERBEEK (Netherlands, SOC), Chairman of the Congress Monitoring Committee, and cross-border co-operation by Robert Csongor GRUMAN, Vice-President of the Congress. Participants will also discuss several local self-government issues such as the training of local government staff and twinning as a development tool.

Congress President Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM participated in a seminar organised with students and professors from the Minsk Academy of Public Administration, Belarus, on 11 September 2018. The aim was to have an exchange on the role and place of local communities in a new system of multi-level governance in Europe.

“One of the key features of this new, multi-level model is the clear delimitation of competences between different levels of government, based on the principle of subsidiarity,” she stated presenting the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the monitoring of its implementation carried out by the Congress.

“The principle of subsidiarity was established for the first time in history by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, a cornerstone international treaty which lays down the legal basis for decentralisation and the development of local self-government on our continent, and as such represents the foundation for the system of multi-level governance as well,” she added.

“Through a core of basic principles to which no reservation is possible, the Charter seeks to ensure the compatibility of the diverse structures of local communities in the Council of Europe member States. Our Congress of Local and Regional Authorities makes sure that these principles are observed,” she explained.

The President of the Congress presented in detail the different aspects of the Congress' monitoring of the situation of local democracy in Europe: regular country-by-country visits, observation of local and regional elections, and fact-finding missions. She also stressed the importance of regular dialogue with national authorities, in particular in the context of post-monitoring procedures and roadmaps to support national authorities in the implementation of the Congress'’recommendations.

“In complementarity to its post-monitoring, the Congress is working to make sure that the Charter provisions are correctly incorporated into the domestic law and legal systems of member States,” the Congress President said, adding: “We are convinced that this process is of fundamental importance for the good functioning of local democracy in European countries.”

“Our objective is to create a single, unified space of common standards in the field of local democracy in Europe. For this reason, one of the Congress’ priorities today is to have all reservations to the Charter lifted, and to make sure that we have a “100 per cent Charter”,  the Congress President concluded.

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