Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Following the meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which was held in Tbilisi (Georgia) on 3 July 2013, Chairman of the Committee Lars O. Molin expressed his committee's concern regarding the current political situation in Georgia.

"The proceedings initiated in respect of local self-government bodies cause concern for our committee. This process has prevented normal functioning of local self-governing bodies. Therefore, we call on the Georgian government to respect the rights of politicians. The Congress is monitoring the on-going processes in Georgia," the statement says.

The Congress is engaged in monitoring the commitments by Georgia with regard to its ratification of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. A report and a recommendation were adopted at the Congress session in March 2013. The Georgian Government is to define, in the coming months, the scope of the reform that it intends to implement in regard to local democracy.

''In this framework, the Congress is ready to engage in a political post-monitoring dialogue to clarify the conditions for the implementation of its recommendations adopted in March 2013. The government authorities have expressed their readiness to cooperate in this regard, which is a positive sign," Lars O. Molin said.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe is a pan-European political assembly, 636 members of which hold elective office (they may be regional or municipal counsellors, mayors or presidents of regional authorities) representing over 200,000 authorities in 47 European states.

Its role is to promote local and regional democracy, improve local and regional governance and strengthen authorities' self-government. It encourages the devolution and regionalisation processes, as well as transboundary co-operation between cities and regions.