MCL-17(2011)16

RESOLUTION

ADOPTED BY THE EUROPEAN MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

AT THE 17th SESSION OF THEIR COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONFERENCE

We, the European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government,

Having come together at the 17th session of our Conference on 3 and 4 November 2011 in Kyiv in order to take forward our longstanding cooperation,

Express our warm thanks to the Ukrainian Government for hosting and providing hospitality at our 17th session;

In particular we thank Mr Anatoliy Blyznyuk, Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy for chairing our session;

We thank our colleague Minister Manuel Chaves, Vice-President of the Government of Spain, for the preparation and presentation of his excellent report and Secretary of State Gaspar Zarrias of Spain, for hosting the two conferences to evaluate the impact of the economic crisis and the policy responses to it held in Strasbourg in September 2010 and June 2011 respectively;

We thank our colleague and former colleagues, Ms Mari Kiviniemi, Mr Tapani Tölli and Ms Henna Virkkunen, successive Ministers of Public Administration and Local Government of Finland for their efforts towards enhancing the effectiveness of the work of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy;

Finally, we express our appreciation to the Open Society Foundations (OSF) for its support to the work on the further impact of the economic crisis on local government.