A A REMARKABLE TREATY ACHIEVES EUROPE-WIDE COVERAGE

The autumn of 2013 saw the conjunction of two important events for the European Charter of Local Self-Government 1985 (‘the Charter’). On 1 September, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Charter's coming into force was celebrated. And, in October, there was further celebration of the extension of the Charter's coverage to all the member states of the Council of Europe. On 16 May 2013, San Marino had signed the Charter and, on 29 October, notice of the country's ratification was recorded. These celebrations were rather more subdued than that undertaken for the twentieth birthday of the making of the Charter at a conference in Lisbon in July 2005. But that was in line with the restraints imposed on the Council of Europe, the Charter's parent organisation, by the global financial crisis rather than because of any loss of confidence in the standing of the Charter itself. The Council of Europe's biggest and best-known contribution to international treaty-making has been in the area of human rights with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (‘the echr’) adopted in 1950 but, in the Council's other principal area of focus – the promotion of democracy – the Charter has been its highest-profile product.

For the Council of Europe's principal organ with a remit in this field – the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (‘the Congress’) – its responsibilities for the Charter have been its prime concern. The monitoring functions of the Congress will be considered later in this book. But, from time to time in the life of the Charter, the Congress has stepped back from its routine work to publicise and to applaud its own broader contribution to local democracy. Significant Charter birthdays have been celebrated and international conferences have been held; other Congress-promoted events, with a national or regional focus, have also taken place; and, in recent years, the Congress has taken the lead in promoting an initiative in relation to the securing and protection of ‘regional democracy’ in parallel with the protection offered by the Charter at the local level.