Strasbourg, 21 March 2014                                                                  CDDG(2014)10

                                                                                             Item 6 of the agenda

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE

(CDDG)

REQUESTS FOR OBSERVER STATUS

For action

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the

Directorate of Democratic Governance

Democratic Institutions and Governance Department

This document is public. It will not be distributed at the meeting. Please bring this copy.

Ce document est public. Il ne sera pas distribué en réunion. Prière de vous munir de cet exemplaire.

Introduction

The terms of reference of the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) are ruled by Resolution CM/Res(2011)24 of the Committee of Ministers.

The membership of the Committee comprises members, participants and observers.

Members are all member states.

Participants are: Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe, European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), as well as European Union, Observer States to the Council of Europe (Canada, Holy See, Japan, Mexico, United States of America), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Office for Democratic Institutions and Human rights (ODIHR-OSCE) and Benelux Union.

Observers are non-governmental organisations that “may receive, upon request, the observer status and have the right to send representatives without the right to vote and without defrayal of expenses.”

The granting of observer status is disciplined by provision 8 of CM/Res(2011)24 which states as follows:

“8.      Observers from states or organisations other than those referred to in paragraph 7.b above.  They shall be admitted to steering committees, ad hoc committees and any subordinate body answerable to them in the following manner:

a.       as a general rule, upon their request to the Secretary General, observers are admitted, to steering and ad hoc committees or any subordinate body answerable to them, on the basis of a unanimous decision by that steering or ad hoc committee; in the event where unanimity is not reached, the matter may be referred to the Committee of Ministers at the request of two-thirds of the members of the committee concerned. The Committee of Ministers shall decide on the matter by a two-thirds majority of all the representatives entitled to sit on it; […]”

Two NGOs having had observer status with the former CDLR committee – the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) - have applied to the Secretary General for observer status with the CDDG. Their letters appear at appendices I and II to this document respectively.

Action required

The CDDG is invited to express itself on the granting of observers status to ARE and CEMR following the above-mentioned procedure.

 

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II