Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The logo of the Congress
Abbreviation	Congress
Formation	12 January 1957; 67 years ago (1957-01-12)
Type	IGO
Headquarters	Strasbourg, France
Membership	46 member states of the Council of Europe
Official language	English, French
President	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
Affiliations	European Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Website	www.coe.int/congress
Formerly called	Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe

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.

Politics of the Council of Europe
Executive Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić Committee of Ministers President: Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir
Legislature Parliamentary Assembly President: Theodoros Roussopoulos European Congress President: Leendert Verbeek
Judiciary European Court of Human Rights President: Robert Spano Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
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Members  Albania  Andorra  Armenia  Austria  Azerbaijan  Belgium  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Croatia  Cyprus  Czechia  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Georgia (country)  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Iceland  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Liechtenstein  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Malta  Moldova  Monaco  Montenegro  Netherlands  North Macedonia  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Romania  San Marino  Serbia  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  Ukraine  United Kingdom
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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.