Eastern Partnership: Call for Stronger Local Participation Ahead of Riga Summit
Local leaders from the EU and its Eastern partner countries gathered yesterday for the fifth annual meeting of the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) in Brussels. The members adopted a set of recommendations for the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga in May.
The recommendations recall the significant role of local democracy and citizens’ participation in pursuing the goals of the EaP. Participants also called the European Commission to draft specific programmes to provide direct and accessible support to EaP local and regional authorities.
“Two years ago, the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit explicitly recognised the role of regional and local authorities,” said Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Markku Markkula. “We will keep focusing on decentralisation reforms, including institutional and capacity building measures.”
CORLEAP was established by the CoR in 2011 to bring a regional and local dimension into the EU’s Eastern Partnership. CORLEAP brings together 36 regional and local elected representatives from the EU and the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries.
Source: enpi-info.eu
Tags: Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership, CORLEAP, EaP, Easter Partnership summit Riga, Eastern Partnership, EU, EU integration