Brussels, 04/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), which is governed by the Committee of the Regions (CoR), made its recommendations on 4 September ahead of the Eastern Partnership Summit, which will bring the EU and the eastern partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) together in Vilnius on 28 and 29 November of this year. “The objective is to see the contribution of local government fully recognised, but we also expect clear deliverables and tangible results from the upcoming Summit”, said Ramon Luis Valcarcel Siso, the President of the CoR, at the plenary session of CORLEAP on 4 September, during which the recommendations were adopted.
The document establishes three priority areas where actions may be carried out concretely to support the development of local democracy in these partner countries of the EU. These fields are: financial autonomy, administrative reforms and territorial cooperation. Valcarcel Siso went on to say that it was time to “rethink the Eastern Partnership”, possibly via a “new approach” towards the Partnership as an instrument to support the countries in question in completing their modernisation and reform processes. He reiterated that the local and regional authorities “can be, and already are, ready” to make a substantial contribution to this.
At the plenary session of CORLEAP, Mamuka Abuladze, the President of the Georgian Association of local authorities, was appointed co-president of CORLEAP, a position he will share with Valcarcel Siso. (MD/transl.fl)