22nd Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
Monitoring of grassroots democracy in Germany
Strasbourg, 22 March 2012 – During its 22nd Session, the Congress examined the report on the state of local democracy in Germany and addressed a recommendation to the member state. The monitoring report, presented by Britt-Marie Lovgren (Sweden, L, ILDG), states that Germany has made «considerable progress in complying with the recommendations made by the Congress after its monitoring report on the situation of local government finances in 1999».
Nonetheless, the Congress invited German authorities to work out the standards for concomitant financing of local authorities, to strengthen and institutionalise participatory rights of national associations of local authorities both at federal and Land level and to sign and ratify the Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority.
Video of the debate