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Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities holds plenary session in Strasbourg

30 May 2007 15:49 (UTC +04:00)

Co-operation on local democracy beyond Europe’s borders, in particular with Morocco, Japan and Mexico, is one of the items on the agenda. Delegations from these three countries will address the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions of the Congress.
A round table on â€œ50 years of local democracy in the Council of Europeâ€ will take place on 30 May 2007 to mark the anniversary of the first session of the Conference of Local Authorities, held on 12 January 1957 under the Chairmanship of the late French Prime Minister and National Assembly Speaker Jacques Chaban-Delmas.
On the same day a debate is scheduled on the new Congress Charter, which the Committee of Ministers adopted on 2 May this year and which allows for the increasing political role played by the Congress.
Spain’s State Secretary for Territorial Co-operation, Ana Isabel Leiva Diez, will speak on 1 June, inter alia to present the plans for the Conference of European Ministers responsible for local and regional authorities to be held in Valencia (Spain) on 15 and 16 October next.
This will be followed by a debate on the â€˜European Local Democracy Week’’ project. At the initiative of the Congress and the European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR), this proposal could be officially launched at the Valencia Conference.
Other personalities who will be present include Liechtenstein’s Minister of the Interior Martin Meyer, the Mayor of Moscow, Youri Loujkov, and the Mayor of Rabat in Morocco, Omar Bahraoui.
Also on the session’s agenda are various debates on the monitoring of local and regional democracy, election observation, social cohesion and, in particular, territorial continuity, and also urgent societal issues such as global warming.
6-member delegation is representing Azerbaijan at the session. The head of the delegation is the chief of Nakhchivan municipalities association Anar Ibrahimov.
Ibrahimov told the APA after the speech by Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis, the delegation will ask him a question on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. /APA/