Meeting in plenary in Strasbourg, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe heard on Tuesday 25 October from Fiona O’Loughlin of Ireland, the Parliamentary Assembly’s rapporteur on the proposed 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government on the future of the Council of Europe.
The holding of such a summit, scheduled for mid-May 2023, is widely supported by the Congress and the Assembly, but still needs to be confirmed by the Committee of Ministers, which will probably happen in November, after the handover of the presidency from Ireland to Iceland, with the summit planned for Reykjavik.
Determined to “use all its weight”, the Parliamentary Assembly wants “more resources” for a Council of Europe that can have “an impact” on its 46 member states, said Fiona O’Loughlin.
In her report, which will be finalised in January, she advocates a commitment from the member states both to increase the organisation’s budget and to reaffirm its “political role”, which also commits the elected representatives sitting in the Assembly and Congress to act as “multipliers” of the Council of Europe’s action with the national chambers.
“It is important to recognise the political role of the Council of Europe in the European architecture”, she repeated, reacting to the creation of the European Political Community, a body “in the process of being formed”, about which she did not want to “speculate”, but which would have to take account of the Council of Europe’s expertise in terms of drafting legal texts, and monitoring and cooperation mechanisms.
Like the High-Level Reflection Group on the future of the Council of Europe, she calls for a stronger strategic partnership with the European Union.
Several Congress members regretted the virtual absence of the local and regional level in the conclusions of this group. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)