The Bureau of the Congress met in Strasbourg on 17 October 2017, on the day before the 33rd session of the Congress and approved the session agenda.

In particular, the Bureau decided to hold a current affairs debate on the situation in Catalonia (Spain), which will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 19 October. It also took note of the draft report to be examined on the same day concerning the situation of Dorin CHIRTOACA, vice-president of the Congress and mayor of Chisinau (Republic of Moldova), who has been under house arrest since 26 May 2017 and suspended from his office of mayor. In addition, the President of the Congress, Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM, presented the main features of the planned high-level visit to Ukraine on 21 and 22 November 2017, most notably a round table on the implementation of the Congress roadmap in the context of post-monitoring dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities. The Bureau also examined the cooperation activities carried out by the Congress in Council of Europe member States and non-member States. Other items of the session agenda include, as items for information, the local and regional elections held in 'the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia', Georgia, Netherlands and Tunisia. Finally, the Bureau adopted the revised statute of the Group of independent experts on the European Charter of Local Self-Government.