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 Vice-President Michalis ANGELOPOULOS (Greece, EPP/CCE) opened the seminar which brought together Congress members and experts, in Minsk, on 11 September 2018, to discuss the situation of local self-government in Belarus. He presented, in particular, the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the monitoring activities carried out by the Congress.

“The main purpose of the Charter is to provide member States with a common basis of shared values in the field of local democracy, which every national government and local authority can refer to in building or reforming their institutions,” he explained, underlining the wide range of experience in this field in the 47 Council of Europe members States. “Europe is diverse, and the application of the Charter is correspondingly diverse,” he stated.

“Our mission at the Congress is not to teach or to instruct national authorities as to which model should apply. Our mission is to share experiences and to make “recommendations” to national authorities, based on our experience,” said the Congress Vice-President. “I am confident that Belarus will find its own way to establish better local governance, based on a relevant and accurate application of the principles of the Charter,” he concluded.

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