“Together, we are all entering a serious period in the life of our organisation and of our Congress,” said Congress President Gudrun Mosler-Törnström at the opening of the 34th session of the Congress in Strasbourg, France, on 27 March 2018. In her communication, the President gave an update on the budgetary crisis currently affecting the Council of Europe and its repercussions for the operation of the Congress. She underlined that the crisis had started with the decision by the member states to apply “zero nominal growth” to the Council of Europe’s budget. Now it was being compounded by Turkey’s recent decision to reduce its contribution and by Russia’s failure to pay two-thirds of its contribution in 2017 and one-third of 2018 contribution.
“The structure of the Congress budget probably makes us more vulnerable to the crisis than any other institution in the Council of Europe”, she said. Unlike the Parliamentary Assembly, whose budget was largely funded by national parliaments, the Congress could not expect local and regional authorities to pay for delegations’ activities and transports.
Gudrun Mosler-Törnström also warned Congress members about the alarming impact which the budget cuts were having on its activities and the resulting weakening of the influence of the local and regional dimension on the Council of Europe’s activities. “The crisis is not only budgetary but also political and is actually affecting our institutional role, what we stand for and our ability to act”, she said.
To deal with these difficulties, the President announced the setting up of a strategic steering group consisting of the three presidents, the four political group chairs and the Secretary General and the Director to look into options for far-reaching reform of the way the Congress operates.
Communication by the Congress President
** 34th Session of the Congress **
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