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.

"More than a third of Europeans live in a border area and have to face all the challenges that this entails," Congress Vice-President Robert GRUMAN (Romania, EPP) pointed out, at the session on cross-border cooperation held during a Round Table on Local Self-Government, in Minsk, Belarus, on 12 September 2018.

Mr. GRUMAN presented the European legal framework and, in particular, the European Outline Convention on Cross-border Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities. "This convention, which entered into force in 1981, remains the reference treaty in this field. Currently, 38 of the 47 Council of Europe member states have signed and ratified it," he said. The Madrid Convention is supplemented by three Protocols on the right of local and regional authorities to conclude cross-border co-operation agreements, twinning agreements and rules on Euroregional co-operation groups and other cross-border organizations in all Council of Europe member states.

"Over the years, it has become clear that not all obstacles to cross-border cooperation can be overcome by legal instruments," Mr. GRUMAN stressed. "Cross-border, interregional and transnational cooperation also requires a vision, objectives, strategies and concrete actions".

It is in this spirit that the Congress contributed to the creation of the Adriatic Euroregion, which brings together national, regional and local authorities from Member States and non-EU Member States around the Adriatic. It also adopted, in 2009, a report on the state of cross-border cooperation in Europe, and, in 2013, a report on the prospects for effective cross-border cooperation.  Today, the Congress continues this work in order to coordinate research in this area - including data collection and indicators development - and to develop capacity building and training programs.

Mr. GRUMAN also stressed the importance of interregional cooperation in an increasingly globalized environment. "This cooperation, characterized by adaptability, flexibility of its mechanisms and lightweight structures, leads regions to discover new, effective and imaginative ways of working together and becomes an important driving force for European integration and territorial cohesion," he concluded.

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