Home / News / In-depth news / Local Democracy

Governance and citizenship

Local Democracy - 20.09.2010

Local and regional democracy: CEMR welcomes Congress redefining its priorities

In an interview with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities on 16 September 2010, Frédéric Vallier, CEMR Secretary General, welcomed the Congress' move to reposition the promotion and safeguarding of local and regional democracy at the heart of its priorities.

Indeed, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) looks forward to cooperating with the Congress in this area, its current reform being 'of special interest to us because we ourselves are contemplating changes to our existing set-up," noted Vallier. 'We must find ways of continuing to progress, especially as promoting local and regional democracy is a never-ending challenge."

CEMR's Secretary General underlined in his interview that, while the Congress serves as a local democracy think tank, it must increasingly involve itself in the training of local elected representatives in newly formed democracies. 'It is essential for local democracy to gain a solid footing in the countries of the new Europe as failure there would be disastrous."

'It is all the more essential for us to pool our efforts to promote local democracy considering that on their own, our resources are, and always will be, limited", concluded Vallier.