Brussels, 10/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - At the initiative of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, European ministers with responsibility for local and regional government will meet in Utrecht on 16-17 November to discuss “Good local and regional governance in turbulent times: the challenge of change”. Central to the ministerial discussions will be the role local and regional authorities play at the forefront of dealing with the impact, and efforts to find a way out, of the crisis, cross-border co-operation and follow-up to the report by Mari Kiviniemi, Finnish Minister of Public Administration and Local Government, on how to enhance the work of the Council of Europe in local and regional democracy. The conference will adopt the Utrecht Declaration covering the above-mentioned topics and also the Utrecht Agenda on the challenges and responses by the member states and the Council of Europe over the period 2010-2013, in the sphere of local and regional governance.
At the conference, two new Council of Europe treaties will be opened for signature: the Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government and Protocol No. 3 to the Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning Euroregional Co-operation Groupings.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, Dutch Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Guusje Ter Horst, and Dutch European Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans will open the conference. (G.B./transl.rt)