(AGENPARL) – Thu 03 July 2025 Image
PRESS RELEASE
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
Ref. CG044(2025)
Türkiye’s detained and suspended opposition mayors among key topics at the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Congress
These include Congress member Abdullah Zeydan, who has been suspended as Co-Mayor of Van, as well as Tunç Soyer, former Congress Vice-President and former Mayor of Izmir who has been detained this week. Hasan Akgün, Mayor of Büyükçekmece and long-standing Monitoring Committee member, has been put in prison where he was visited by the Congress delegation. The delegation also visited Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu, similarly detained. The delegation thanked the authorities of Türkiye for granting access to prisons and remained committed to pursuing constructive political dialogue with them on these pressing issues in the framework of the post-monitoring dialogue opened in 2024.
The Committee expressed its deep concerns by this continued judicial harassment of local elected politicians from the opposition, including through prolonged pre-trial detention. It called for the immediate release of all local leaders who have been incarcerated.
The Committee also addressed recent developments in Georgia, where opposition leaders and elected representatives at local and regional levels are facing increasing obstacles ahead of this year’s local elections.
There was an exchange of views on the current situation in the regions and municipalities of Ukraine where Committee members reaffirmed their full support for Ukrainian local and regional authorities facing ongoing aggression from the Russian Federation.
Committee members approved reports on monitoring the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Greece, Poland, Slovenia and the Republic of Moldova.  The Committee also approved reports following the observation of regional elections in Hamburg on 2 March 2025 and local elections in Finland on 13 April 2025. The relevant draft recommendations are expected to be adopted at the Congress Session in October 2025. 
During their exchange of views with Standing Rapporteur on Human Rights Gudrun Mosler-Törnström (Austria, SOC/G/PD) following her recent visit to Sofia, members focused on the role of local authorities in implementing the European Court of Human Rights judgments.  They also highlighted the importance of local and regional authorities in ensuring the full enjoyment of freedom of expression and association and commended the Standing Rapporteur’s visit to the mayor of Budapest the day before the Pride 2025.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is an institution of the Council of Europe, responsible for strengthening local and regional democracy in its 46 member states. Composed of two chambers – the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions – and three committees, it brings together 612 elected officials representing more than 130 000 local and regional authorities.
President of the Congress: Marc Cools (Belgium, ILDG), President of the Chamber of Local Authorities: Bernd Vöhringer (Germany, EPP/CCE), President of the Chamber of Regions: Cecilia Dalman Eek (Sweden, SOC/G/PD).
Political groups: Group of Socialists, Greens and Progressive Democrats (SOC/G/PD), Group of the European Peoples Party (EPP/CCE), Independent Liberal and Democratic Group (ILDG), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR).
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