Moldovan Delegation attended the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers Responsible for Local and Regional Government

On November 3-4, 2011, the 17th session of the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers Responsible for Local and Regional Government was held in Kyiv, being also attended by the Republic of Moldova. Our delegation was made up of Veaceslav Guţuţui, Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Constructions, Eugen Furculiţă, Adviser to the Secretary General of the Government, Victoria Cujba, Deputy Head of the Department for decentralization policies within the State Chancellery, Valeria Ieşeanu, Programme Analyst at UNDP Moldova.

The participants of the Conference discussed several important issues related to the area of local and regional democracy: the impact of economic crisis on local and regional government; policies to deal with the crisis, ensure recovery and tackle long-term societal challenges; respect for and promotion of human rights at local and regional level; the role of central governments in removing obstacles to cross-border cooperation. For two days, representatives of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe had the opportunity to exchange the best practices and experiences concerning the issues of local and regional democracy and good governance, to establish new possibilities for cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

In the context of the Moldovan Government priority with regard to power decentralization and strengthening of local autonomy, our delegation had the opportunity to discuss with conference participants about the progresses registered in this area, the challenges and possible cooperation programmes to this end. We remind that Council of Europe is one of the development partners which support Moldova in the process of decentralization and local autonomy strengthening. Within the conference held in Kyiv, the participants adopted a declaration that is available on the official webpage of the Conference http://17-session.kiev.ua/.