(AGENPARL) - Roma, 6 Marzo 2026 - (AGENPARL) – Fri 06 March 2026 Image
PRESS RELEASE
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
Ref. CG012(2026)
More progress needed to ensure women’s fair participation in local and regional politics
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe is the political assembly representing local and regional governments across the 46 member States, responsible for promoting and monitoring local democracy.
“As an institution, the Congress has reached 40% of women representation. But European local and regional assemblies are still very far from this minimum target, underlined Nazia Rehman (United Kingdom, SOC/G/PD), Spokesperson on Gender Equality of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, in a statement today.
“120 years after Finland became the first European country to grant women the right to vote and stand for elections, more than half of the 46 Council of Europe member states have female participation rates of less than 40% in local assemblies. In some countries, it is as low as 15%.
“This year, when International Women’s Day is held under the theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL women and girls, women’s full democratic participation should therefore be brought to the top of local and regional political agendas. 
“I therefore call on political parties and institutions to take proactive steps, such as gender quotas, “zipper systems”, and leadership support programmes, to increase the number of women candidates in elections and reinforce their participation in local and regional assemblies and in leadership positions. This can also be further supported through mentoring programmes, capacity-building workshops and awareness-raising campaigns including those that reach out to minority groups.
Composed of two chambers – the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions – and three committees, the Congress 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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Council of Europe/Conseil de l’Europe, Avenue de l’Europe, Strasbourg, . 67000 France