Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is the pan-European political assembly representing local and regional authorities from the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe. Known from 1957 to 1983 as the Conference of Local Authorities of Europe and from 1983 to 1994 as the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, its role is to promote local and regional democracy, improve local and regional governance, and strengthen authorities' self-government according to the principles laid down in the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

The Congress is made up of two chambers, the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions, and holds its plenary sessions twice a year at the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, where its permanent Secretariat is based.

The two Chambers have a total of 612 members, who each must hold an elective office (they may be regional or municipal councillors, mayors or presidents of regional authorities) and who represent over 130,000 authorities in the different states. It encourages the devolution and regionalization processes, as well as the trans-frontier co-operation between cities and regions. The Congress conducts regular monitoring visits to all member states to appraise their implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, observes the functioning of local and regional elections in its member states, and creates international treaties that lay down common European standards to protect local authorities' rights.