The Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has elected Belgian Liberal Democrat Marc Cools as its new President. The vote took place on 24October in Strasbourg, on the second day of the Congress’s plenary session.
Interviewed by EUROPE in the wake of his election, the new President is convinced of the importance of this assembly of 306 full members and 306 substitutes, on which he has sat for over 10 years and of which he was Vice-President for 2 years on behalf of the Independent Liberal and Democratic Group (ILDG), which he chairs.
Marc Cools is also a local councillor for Uccle and former chairman of the Belgian Towns and Municipalities Association and Brulocalis (an association of towns and municipalities in the Brussels Region). He is firmly convinced of the importance of local and regional life.
“Participating in the work of the Congress allows us to take a step back from our daily lives”, he says, referring to the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. “It’s sometimes difficult to reconcile the different approaches, but we manage to reach a very broad consensus”.
Marc Cools’ election comes just over 6 months after the Council of Europe Summit held in Reykjavik last May, and it is not without significance.
On that occasion, the Heads of State and Government mandated the Congress to monitor the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights concerning local and regional authorities.
“There are many of them, on subjects as varied as freedom of expression or association, waste management, childcare, housing evictions, etc.”.
These developments will have to be implemented while confronting geopolitics with fire and blood.
There is no shortage of issues: the war in Ukraine, in which the Congress has been involved, notably by linking Ukrainian towns with towns in other Council of Europe member states, the Armenia/Azerbaijan conflict, both of which are represented at the Congress, and the conflict in the Middle East.
“Israel and the Palestinian Authority have observer and partner for democracy status respectively at the Council of Europe”, says Mr Cools.
“We are thinking about how to deal with this war. This will probably not be in the form of a report and debate, but rather through a forum bringing together mayors from Israel and the West Bank. We believe in city diplomacy”.
It remains to be seen when... “In any case, not now, because the tension is too high”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)