Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
AbbreviationCongress
Formation12 January 1957; 67 years ago (1957-01-12)
TypeIGO
HeadquartersStrasbourg, France
Membership
46 member states of the Council of Europe
Official language
English, French
Marc Cools
Secretary General
Mathieu Mori
President of the Chamber of Local Authorities
Bernd Vöhringer
President of the Chamber of Regions
Tunç Soyer
Parent organization
Council of Europe
AffiliationsEuropean Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Websitewww.coe.int/congress
Formerly called
Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe
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Palais de L'Europe: seat of the Congress

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is the pan-European political assembly representing local and regional authorities from the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe. Its role is to promote local and regional democracy, improve local and regional governance and strengthen authorities' self-government, according to the principles laid down in the European Charter of Local Self-Government. It is made up of two chambers, the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions and holds its plenary sessions twice a year at the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, where its permanent Secretariat is located.

The Congress is constituted by 612 members which hold elective office (they may be regional or municipal councillors, mayors or presidents of regional authorities) representing over 130,000 authorities in different states. It encourages the devolution and regionalization processes, as well as the trans-frontier co-operation between cities and regions The Congress conducts regular monitoring visits to all member states to appraise their implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, observes the functioning of local and regional elections in its member states and creates international treaties that lay down common European standards to protect local authorities' rights.