Local self-government and the international community
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe consists of representatives of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe member states.
The Congress represents more than 200,000 local authorities, has 324 full members and the same number of substitute members. It consists of the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regional Authorities. Representatives of Slovenian municipalities have three members in the Congress.
The Congress monitors the compliance of the local self-government system with the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. In Slovenia, the monitoring has already been carried out three times, with the last monitoring performed in 2018.
Committee of the Regions
Although the European Union is not competent for the field of local self-government, it is committed to the principle of subsidiarity, decentralisation and making public services more accessible to the public.
This is why the Committee of the Regions, a special consulting body, was established on the basis of the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) in order to represent the local and regional authorities of the EU Member States.
Within the Committee, representatives can exchange their opinions on EU regulations that directly impact local authorities. The Slovenian delegation consists of seven municipality representatives.