The Congress Connect is a database containing detailed and general information on all members of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
Maria Bigday
The Independent Liberal an Democratic Group (ILDG) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe brings together 98 members. It is chaired by Marc Cools (Belgium).
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is responsible for strengthening local and regional democracy in its 46 member states. It brings together 612 elected officials representing more than 130 000 local and regional authorities and divided among several political groups.
written the 15/03/2024
The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Marc Cools, has made the following statement:
“Ten years ago, on 16 March 2014, the illegal referendum in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, organised at Russian gunpoint, set off a spiral of violence leading to Crimea’s illegal annexation by Russia two days later and eventually to the Russian Federation’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine through which we are living today.”
“In 2014, ... Read more »
written the 01/03/2024
The next ILDG meeting will be held on Monday 25 March 2024 from 15.45 to 17.45 in room 6.
The group will prepare the upcoming Congress session and will renew the composition of its bureau.
written the 26/02/2024
“The so-called local elections organised in Belarus on 25 February 2024 are nothing but a sham. Without freedoms of speech, assembly and association, without genuine opposition and independent media, and in the absence of democratic standards guiding the electoral process, they cannot be considered as free and fair,” declared Marc Cools, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
He also expressed concern for the fate of the political prisoners held by the Lukashenka regime ... Read more »
written the 11/12/2023
-Foreword by Stewart Dickson
-2023 Congress Elections
-Marc Cools elected new president of congress
-My mandate as the vice-president of congress (Randi Mondorf)
-Personal report from the mission to Chisinau (Randi Mondorf)
-Local press at the heart of democracy (Mélanie Lepoultier)
-Combatting climate change (Martine Dieschburg-Nickels)
-ILDG reports