Addressing the Congress of Native and Regional Authorities at its forty seventh plenary Session, Parliamentary Meeting President Theodoros Rousopoulos highlighted probably the most urgent challenges the Meeting and the Congress each wanted to face, together with democratic backsliding, Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine, the worldwide environmental disaster, gender inequalities, the affect of AI on democracy and human rights, and the migration disaster.
“The direct entry to residents’ considerations and expectations relating to democracy, human rights and the rule of regulation that you’ve makes your Congress an important native and regional dimension to governance,” he emphasised, evoking this physique’s thirtieth anniversary.
The PACE President welcomed the Congress’s revised priorities following the Reykjavik Summit, specifically the strengthened monitoring of native democracy and respect for the rule of regulation. “This serves as an necessary ingredient of an early warning system to sign indicators of democratic erosion in our member states,” he stated.
“As in any parliament, battles are fought inside the Parliamentary Meeting, and on this Congress as properly, however our weapons usually are not bullets, they’re the phrases that mix to create arguments,” Mr Rousopoulos concluded.
