The President of the Congress, Anders Knape, welcomes the decision by the Committee of Ministers to extend the mandate of the Congress following the request by the Congress Bureau; by postponing the renewal of the Congress to the spring session, this will give member states more time to submit proposals for the consultation processes and the nomination of the future Congress delegations .

Congress members who continue to have their elected local and regional mandate will therefore remain members until the March 2021 Session (currently scheduled for 23-25 March 2021). Those who lose their mandate in this period can be replaced, so the results of elections can be taken into account.

This extension also means that those in elected functions in the Bureau and in the committees remain in office until March 2021, in application of Article 15 of the Congress Rules and Procedures.

In the October 2020 Session, the Chamber of Local Authorities will elect two vice-presidents for the remainder of this mandate (six months). The secretariat will inform the members of the chamber in September about the modalities for standing as candidate and the deadlines.

A formal letter will be sent to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe after the summer break inviting them to nominate the members for the next Congress mandate by 31 December 2020 – based on consultation with the national associations of local and regional authorities in all member states. The Congress encourages the associations to start their internal reflections about the future composition of the Congress now, in order to be able to respond swiftly to the request of the national authorities in autumn.

Source: https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/-/the-committee-of-ministers-extends-the-mandate-of-the-congress