The Chamber of Regions is one of the two Chambers of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the other being the Chamber of Local Authorities.
The Chamber is the voice of regional authorities in the Council of Europe. It consists of 318 representatives and substitutes from the Council’s 47 member states, who either hold a general regional authority mandate from direct elections or are politically accountable to a directly elected assembly.
The work of the Chamber is organised around four statutory committees. The Institutional Committee is in charge of the issues of regional self-government, it issues reports and draws up recommendations. The Culture and Education Committee works on matters related to culture, education, media, youth, sport and communication. The Committee on Social Cohesion is responsible for employment, citizenship, migration, inter-community relations, social and gender equality, and solidarity. The Committee on Sustainable Development deals with environmental concerns.
According to the Charter of the Congress adopted on 2 May 2007 by the Committee of Ministers, the Chamber’s membership is based on the principles of balanced geographical distribution, equitable representation of the various types of regional authorities and their political groups, as well as of equitable representation of women and men, whereby at least 30 per cent of the members must belong to the under-represented sex. The Chamber drafts reports, recommendations, resolutions and opinions on issues of concern and presents them to the Standing Committee of the Congress for adoption. The Chamber elects a President (currently Herwig Van Staa of Germany) from among its members for two years and appoints a Bureau composed of the President and seven Vice-Presidents. The current seven Vice-Presidents are William Carey of Ireland, Nataliya Romanova of Ukraine, Ludmila Sfirloaga of Romania, Jana Fischerova of the Czech Republique, Helena Pihlajasaari of Finland, Svetlana Orlova of the Russian Federation and Ignacio Snachez Amor of Spain.
The Chamber has a permanent Secretariat located at the Palace of Europe, in Strasbourg, which is headed by its Executive Secretary (currently Jean-Paul Chauvet.
The Chamber consists of 318 statutory representatives and substitutes from:
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