During a bilateral meeting with Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Prime Minister of Croatia today in Strasbourg, Congress President Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM underlined the Congress’ commitment to contribute to the implementation of the priorities of the Croatian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. The President welcomed the fact that one of these priorities was decentralisation in the context of strengthening of local government and self-government.

She informed the Prime Minister that the Congress Session in November will mainly focus on fighting corruption with reports on “Transparency and open governments”, “Conflicts of interests at local and regional levels” and the “European Code of Conduct for all persons involved in local and regional governance”. She also described current Congress activities in the Balkans and highlighted in particular the important role of Croatia -being both a Council of Europe and a European Union Member State - as bridge builder in the region. She informed about a mission to Mostar this week where a Congress delegation takes part in the work of the Reflection Group with a view to contributing to a sustainable solution for the organisation of local elections in this city.

The Prime Minister thanked the Congress for actively supporting and endorsing the Croatian priorities and chairmanship activities, which takes place from May to November 2018.