On the occasion of the meeting of its Monitoring Committee in Oslo, Norway, the Congress and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) held a seminar on 29 June 2026 on democratic preparedness at local and regional level, a contribution to the New Democratic Pact for Europe.

Opening the seminar, Congress President, Gunn Marit Helgesen, underlined that democratic resilience starts in local communities. “It is built through participation, trust, and strong cooperation between local, national and European levels,” she said.

In his keynote speech on strengthening democracy from the ground up, Norwegian Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Bjørnar Skjæran pointed out that “we live in a time where democratic foundations are challenged in many countries – also in countries that have been recognised as democratic for a long time. The efforts made by the Council of Europe and its member states are therefore highly important now.”

The seminar participants put forward the Oslo Declaration for endorsement by the Congress Monitoring Committee on 30 June, recognising that democratic preparedness at the local and regional level constitutes an important preventive and resilience-building element of democratic security, as it enables local communities to anticipate, prevent, address and recover from current and future challenges to democracy without compromising democratic values.

The seminar included a panel discussion on building democratic resilience together, with the participation of Congress Vice-President Konstantinos Koukas (Greece, EPP/CCE), Ambassador of Ukraine to Norway Oleksiy Gavrysh, Congress youth delegate from the Republic of Moldova Ana-Maria Botnarescu, Member of Parliament and former Mayor of Oslo Jonas Andersen Sayed and Professor of the University of Oslo Carl Henrik Knutsen.