The Congress,

1. In consideration of Articles 2, 3 and 4 and of the first transitional provision of the Charter of the CLRAE adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 15 March 2000, and of Rules 2 to 6 of the Rules of Procedure of the CLRAE, which regulate the membership of national delegations, the official procedure for the appointment of members and of special guest delegations and the verification of credentials;

2. In consideration of Article 4.2 of Statutory Resolution (2000) 1 and of Article 7 of the Charter of the CLRAE, where a fair geographical distribution of national delegations is specified between the two Chambers - representatives and substitutes;

3. Taking note of the report of the Bureau presented by Mrs Dini and Mr Skard, rapporteurs;

4. Also taking account of the fact that the year 2000 is a year in which delegations are to be renewed, on the basis of the new statutory provisions;

5. Notes with regret that considerable delays have been recorded in the receipt of these procedures and of delegation lists;

6. Points out that Article 3.1 of the Charter calls on member states to provide in their national procedures "for consultation in each member state of the relevant associations and/or institutional bodies and shall specify the principles to be adhered to in apportioning representatives in the two Chambers";

7. Invites the countries which have procedures not in conformity with the Charter (Albania, Georgia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Portugal, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) to revise them in order that they are brought into line with the requirements of Article 3 of the Charter;

8. Invites those countries which have procedures no longer reflecting current constitutional realities to update these as soon as possible;

9. In general terms invites countries, especially "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", to bring together in a single document all elements which constitute their current procedures, on the basis, inter alia, of the form supplied by the Secretariat;

10. Sets as the deadline for procedures to be updated 31 December 2000, and instructs the Bureau to report to the March 2001 meeting of the Standing Committee on the follow-up action taken by national authorities;

11. Deplores the fact that, where the representation of women is concerned, generally speaking the situation already criticised in Resolution 75 (1999) has not been improved, and they are not fairly represented in a large number of national delegations, in contravention of Article 2, paragraph 2.d of the Congress Charter;

12. Particularly deplores the fact that there are no women in the delegations of Estonia, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Malta and Romania;

13. Issues a general request to delegations to advise the Secretariat, by the end of the year 2000, of the percentage of women within local and regional authorities, and to modify the percentage of women represented in each delegation accordingly;

14. Instructs the Bureau to report to the March 2001 meeting of the Standing Committee on the follow-up action taken by each national delegation on the above request;

15. Takes note that, in conformity with Article 2.4 of the Charter, the following countries, which do not have regions within the meaning of Recommendation 56 on the statutory reinforcement and the revision of the Congress Charter, are to be represented in "the Chamber of Regions and its organs in an advisory capacity": Andorra, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania², Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia and "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Where Albania is concerned, this affects only two of its four members of the Chamber of Regions. This provision does not affect the participation of these representatives as full members of the plenary Congress and its organs;

16. Regrets that the national delegations of Albania (1), Andorra (3), Belgium (3), Greece (9), Hungary (5), Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (4), Poland (2), Portugal (1), Russian Federation (32), San Marino (1), "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (5) and Ukraine (14), Armenia (4) have not informed the Congress of the political affiliation of some or all of their members, thereby preventing the Bureau from examining the delegations' conformity with Article 2, paragraph 2.c of the Charter and with Rule 2, paragraph 3 of the Rules of Procedure, and invites them to submit this information by 30 June 2000; should they fail to do so, the Bureau may consider questioning the credentials of the delegations concerned;

17. In respect of the use of the first transitional provision of the Charter,

- is gratified to note that Turkey has refrained from making use thereof when renewing the membership of its national delegation;

- notes that the Netherlands has reduced the number of members concerned and that the delegation has provided the rapporteurs with an explanation relating to the conditions contained in this provision;

18. Notes with regret that, when the national authorities of Georgia renewed their delegation, they were unable to achieve fair geographical distribution in the Chamber of Regions (the criticism already expressed about this aspect in Resolution 75 (1999) not having been taken into account), and invites the Georgian authorities to remedy this situation within six months;

19. Invites the Lithuanian national authorities, in accordance with Articles 2.4 and 3.1 of the Charter, to clarify the situation of their delegation members to the Chamber of Regions, so as to enable the status of their members of this Chamber to be specified;

20. While accepting the Slovenian delegation at this stage as being in conformity with the criteria set out in the Charter and with the national procedure, invites the rapporteurs on the situation of local and regional democracy in Slovenia to clarify the situation of the national associations of local authorities in this country;

21. Approves the procedures relating to the appointment of delegations and to the examination of members' credentials, subject to the requests made in this resolution.