The Congress adopted a report and a recommendation on local and regional democracy in Italy on 18 October 2017, following a monitoring visit to the country in March 2017 by the co-rapporteurs Jakob WIENEN (Netherlands, EPP/CCE) and Stewart DICKSON (United Kingdom, ILDG). The Congress invites the Italian authorities to reconsider, on the basis of consultations, the criteria for calculating budget cuts and to lift financial constraints imposed on local authorities to ensure that sufficient financial resources are available to them. It recommends clarifying the powers and responsibilities of the provinces and metropolitan cities by re-introducing direct elections of their governing bodies, providing for adequate financial remuneration of their representatives and revising the current limitations in relation to local human resources. The Congress also recommends that the Italian authorities ensure greater fiscal autonomy for regions with ordinary status to reduce the differences between them and regions with special status. The Italian authorities are furthermore invited to sign and ratify the Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority.
33rd Session, 18-20 October 2017
Speaking at the opening of the 33rd Congress Session, in Strasbourg, France, on 18 October 2017, Congress President Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM, pointed out that the European construction has enabled historic advances over the last sixty years. 'We do not want to abandon these advances and each and every one of us, in our own particular roles, can help preserve what has been achieved,' she added highlighting the role of the Congress in this regard. Reaffirming the importance of strong regions with broad powers, the President of the Congress indicated that she did not believe that 'the Europe we earnestly hope for can be built on weak nation States, a disintegrated, fragmented Europe which would be devoid of all influence in the world.”. 'There is no room for selfishness, be it national or regional. There is no place for nationalism, whether national or regional”, she added. .' For the President, the message of the Congress is clear: 'We know that devolution is essential, that municipal and regional self-government, clearly defined within the limits of each State’s legally-established borders, is indispensable. But we do not want to see our nations implode,” she concluded.
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