Leningrad Oblast Chief Suggests Measures to Improve Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The Governor of the Leningrad Oblast, Aleksander Drozdenko, has formulated a number of concrete proposals aimed at improving the efficiency of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CoE).

Drozdenko drew attention in particular to the need for a rapid exchange of information on best practice, which would enable the Congress to take into account the experience of colleagues when dealing with urgent problems.

In order to improve how participating countries interact and also to raise the profile of the Congress, Drozdenko proposed that more young people should be involved.

"The work of our youth delegates, including in the media in their countries, will make it possible to publicise and promote our work more actively," Drozdenko said.

The Governor also supported a proposal of his colleagues to revise the format of reports, so they could be prepared quicker. According to Drozdenko, prompt preparation of reports would reduce the chance that they were out of date by the time they were presented.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe at present comprises 324 members of national delegations and 324 alternates representing over 200,000 local and regional authorities from 47 member States of the Council of Europe (CoE). The Congress is an advisory body to the CoE and one of its three main units, serving as a platform to discuss shared problems, exchanging experiences and developing cooperation.