Congress created a hub for partners' actions. As many networks and associations of municipalities, cities and regions showcase concrete responses to the COVID-19 situation, the Congress secretariat has decided to establish this knowledge hub, which will be regularly updated. 

As a political assembly comprising local and regional elected representatives from 47 Council of Europe member states, the Congress has the capacity to pool our respective experiences in order to find responses that can be implemented on the ground in all European communities. Congress states that we must also unite our efforts to support local and regional authorities which, because of their particular responsibilities and their proximity to citizens, are in the front line in responding to this major crisis. Local and regional authorities are at the frontline of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. They are providing emergency services in their communities and communicating with citizens on measures to contain the spread of disease. They are co-ordinating their action with other levels of government and other partners across all sectors of society and mitigating the impact of the outbreak on communities.

In responding to the urgent needs of their communities, local and regional authorities themselves are in urgent need of information, means and resources to deal with the crisis. Their associations, associations of cities and regions around the world, act to address those needs – from the Action Plan and an exchange platform by the European Committee of the Regions to the experience-sharing campaign by the Global Parliament of Mayors; from a repository of specific cases in cross-border areas by the Association of European Border Regions to a webinar platform by Eurocities to help access EU funding under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative; from an online market engagement by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability to connect health sector procurers and medical supply providers, to numerous dedicated web sections, hubs and blogs to keep communities connected and informed, maintain dialogue and search for solutions beyond the outbreak.

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