OSCE and Council of Europe sign agreement on common goals in south-eastern Europe

STRASBOURG, 17 November 2005 - The OSCE Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis, today signed an agreement outlining the common goals and purposes of both organizations with regard to local and regional self-government in south-eastern Europe.

"The Co-operation Agreement on Local Government Assistance is an excellent case in point of practical co-operation on the ground," Ambassador de Brichambaut said at the annual Committee of Ministers meeting of the Council of Europe (CoE) in Strasbourg today.

"It is focused, it is pragmatic and it sends the right message to capitals on our willingness to work together. It also offers good signals to host countries on our common goals and purposes, gives the necessary institutional support to the OSCE's field presences, and opens up new possibilities for exploiting the organizations' complementary natures in joint activities."

Terry Davis stressed that the Agreement was based on many years of close co-operation in the field between the CoE and the OSCE.

"Local government is one of the key priorities of the Council of Europe and its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities," he said. "Close co-operation with other international partners is vital and the Agreement signed today should help the countries concerned to benefit more efficiently from the OSCE's experience in implementing local government assistance programmes and encourage them to comply with international standards on local governance - notably the CoE's European Charter of Local Self-Government."

Both Secretaries General hope the Agreement would be followed by others on specific local government programmes between the Council of Europe and OSCE missions in each country. Such programmes could make full use of both organization's expertise on local government issues.