Today the Georgian Parliament unanimously approved 24 provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Hence, Georgia has met one of its commitments undertaken when joining the Council of Europe (CoE) in 1999.
“Out of 33 commitments to the Council of Europe, Georgia has to still meet 5,” Elene Tevdoradze, a member of the Georgian parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe, said on October 26.
The Georgian authorities signed the abovementioned Charter in May 2002, as a result of which lawmakers were entrusted to choose no less than 20 provisions of the Charter and ratify them.
Georgia rejected to ratify article 5 of the Charter, which concerns administrative-territorial boundaries. “Changes in local authority boundaries shall not be made without prior consultation of the local communities concerned, possibly by means of a referendum where this is permitted by statute,” the 5th article of the Charter reads.
The Parliament of Georgia refrained from ratifying paragraph 3 of article 10, which envisages the cooperation of local authorities with their counterparts in other countries.
Now, Georgia will have to bring the local legislation in full harmonization with the ratified provisions.