The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe decided, during its session in October 2017, to put in place a ‟Reflection Group on Mostar”. The aim is to contribute to a sustainable solution for restoring local democracy in the city of Mostar, which has not held local elections since 2008 due to a political impasse.

The Reflection Group aims at:

  • advocating, at local and European level, in favour of a sustainable legal and political solution to restore local democracy in the City of Mostar;
  • bringing together major local and European stakeholders to dialogue in order to gradually overcome the obstacles for holding local elections in Mostar;
  • supporting local civil society organisations in their efforts to raise awareness about the current political situation and peaceful interethnic relations among local communities.

The composition of the Group has been approved by the Bureau of the Congress on 26 March 2018.

Congress Full Members

  • Mr Anders KNAPE (EPP/CCE, Sweden), President of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress
  • Mr Piero FASSINO (SOC, Italy), President of the SOC Group
  • Mr Stewart DICKSON (ILDG, United Kingdom), Thematic Spokesperson on observation of local and regional elections and Rapporteur of the 2016 Election Observation Mission to BiH

Congress Supplementary Members

  • Jos WIENEN (EPP/CEE, the Netherlands), Thematic Spokesperson on observation of local and regional elections
  • Barbara TOCE (SOC, Italy), Vice-President of the Congress
  • Carla DE JONGHE (ILDG, Belgium), Rapporteur of the 2018 Monitoring of local and regional democracy in BiH

EU Committee of the Regions

  • Dr. Franz SCHAUSBERGER, Member of the Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX), Chair of the CoR's Working Group on Western Balkans

Monitoring Committee and Observation of local and regional elections

Committee Secretary
Stéphanie Poirel
Assistant: Ekaterina Kotnova
 + 33 3 90 21 52 44