On June 17-18, a meeting of the Political Council of the European Platform for the Development of Local and Regional Governments (PLATFORMA) was held in Strasbourg, in which the newly elected speaker of PLATFORMA, a member of the Tbilisi Municipality Council, Levan Abashidze from Georgia was involved.
At the session, which was organized for the first time after the European Union elections, the Georgian delegate made a speech. Levan Abashidze thanked the institutions involved in the EU expansion process for their work and expressed hope that the mentioned policy towards the Eastern trio will be even more effective in the future.
,, Considering the results of the last elections, I hope that the enlargement policy towards the Eastern trio will not change. In addition, this process will become much more intensive, and the representation of local and regional authorities, as well as their involvement in this process, will be much higher than before. Local self-governments need more funding to achieve their goals, and I hope that in the case of the Eastern Trio, a pre-accession tool will be put into effect, which has not happened so far,” said Levan Abashidze.
The Georgian delegate introduced the priorities of the capital’s municipality to the attending public and shared with his colleagues the achievements that the local government has implemented in the shortest time in the direction of health care, social programs and environmental protection.
According to Levan Abashidze, almost a third of the total budget of the municipality is spent on social and health care, which is reflected in about forty different programs. According to him, a large part of the money is also used for environmental protection, as a result of which the air pollution in Mother Kala has decreased by 25%.
The meeting of the political council of the European Platform for the Development of Local and Regional Governments (PLATFORMA) was also attended by PLATFORMA member, Telavi Municipality Council Chairman Tengiz Mvartelishvili and representatives of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) delegation, CEMR Vice President Athea. Nino Rukhadze, executive director of the company, and Ketevan Khomeriki, deputy of the Ozurgeti municipality council.