On 5 and 6 May 2025, Congress Vice-President Bernd Vöhringer (Germany, EPP/CCE) participated in the Conference on Democracy and Human Rights and the Conference of Mayors for Democracy, organised jointly by the city of Kristiansand (Norway), the Council of Europe and the Norwegian national association of local and regional authorities (KS).

In his keynote speech on the role of local democracy in the promotion of democratic values and governance in Europe, Vice-President Vöhringer underlined that democracy needed to be renewed to better meet citizens’ expectations. “We must adapt to long-standing challenges but also prepare and be prepared to respond to new future challenges,” he said, adding that the role of local elected representatives was crucial in this process. “Being a local elected representative is demanding and not always rewarding – and yet the local level has in many countries the highest rate of confidence amongst citizens,” continued the Congress Vice-President.

Speaking in a panel discussion on “Ukraine: building dialogue for the future”, he underlined the Congress assistance provided since 2011, which was increased since the beginning of the large-scale aggression of the country by Russia and which included political support, assistance with decentralisation reforms, dialogue on the country’s post-war recovery and reconstruction, promotion of local and regional partnerships across Europe, and the implementation of a project to improve the quality of local democracy and civic participation.

At the conference, José Duarte D’Almeida, Councillor of Cascais (Portugal) and an active member of the Congress’ European Local Democracy Week, presented his city’s best practices on citizen participation. It was also an occasion to award Mayor of Kristiansand Markus Bernander with the certificate of “Partner of the European Local Democracy Week 2024”, presented by Vice-President Vöhringer.