Regular evaluation of the municipal administration’s performance is necessary for ensuring good democratic governance at the local level and designing evidence-based improvement policies for the municipality. The Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance provides the possibility for such measurement through implementation of its tool European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) by interested local authorities.
Selected municipalities in Slovakia have already implemented the tool twice, in 2021 and 2022, and are looking into options for continuing the ELoGE programme in the future. To this end and with a view to improving the next results of evaluations, from 17-21 April 2023 a group of Slovak mayors and representatives of the ELoGE awarded municipalities, the ELoGE accredited organisation - Dobry Uradnik, and a representative of the Ministry of Interior – visited Italy to exchange with their counterparts.
The study visit included a four day long workshop, facilitated by Council of Europe experts, and a series of meetings with ELoGE municipalities from the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the accredited organisation AICCRE FVG (L'Associazione italiana per il Consiglio dei Comuni e delle Regioni d'Europa - Federazione Friuli Venezia Giulia). During the discussions, participants from both countries shared their experience in implementing the ELoGE programme and the lessons learnt. In addition, the Slovak and Italian authorities discussed possible cooperation and common project ideas, notably through some of the Council of Europe tools such as the Cross-border Cooperation toolkit and the City-to-City Cooperation toolkit. The participants also learned about different funding opportunities for their potential common projects.
Following the study visit, the conclusions from the discussions will feed into the preparation of a peer-to-peer guide on the implementation of ELoGE which will be disseminated among the participants to facilitate future implementation of the programme both in Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe.
The activity was organised by the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance, in the framework of the Council of Europe – EU joint project “Delivering Good Governance in Slovakia – II phase”.
