COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONGRESS OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES HOLDS PLENARY SESSION IN STRASBOURG
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 30 2007
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of
Europe is holding its next plenary session which will last from 30
May to 1 June 2007 in Strasbourg (France), APA’s correspondent reports.
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 "50 years of local democracy in the Council of Europe"
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 ‘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.