Monitoring of the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Turkey is the title of the report adopted by the 42nd Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

The report was presented by co-rapporteurs Vladimir Prebilic (Slovenia, SOC/G/PD) and David Eray (Switzerland, EPP/CCE). 

The report followed a three-part monitoring visit to Turkey which ratified the European Charter of Local Self-Government in 1992, with reservations about ten provisions of the Charter. The first two parts took place respectively in October and November 2019. Another visit was carried out in December 2021 to update the information collected in 2019 and to streamline the report already prepared.

The report noted with “satisfaction the impressive turnout in recent local elections that took place in 2019 (above 84%), which is one of the highest in the Council of Europe member States and shows a strong interest in local self-government among the citizens.”

However, the report noted a “generally degrading situation in terms of local self-government. The rapporteurs expressed their concerns about the small progress in implementing Congress Recommendation 397(2017) on the situation of local elected representatives in Turkey. They also deplore the provincial electoral administration’s refusal to grant the required certificate of elections to several candidates who won the elections. They point out the governor’s double function as a state agent and a chairman of the provincial executive committee, which is contrary to the spirit of the Charter, as well as the administrative tutelage over the activities and decisions of local authorities; the state overregulation and interventionism in planning decisions of local authorities; the lack of consultation of affected local authorities during the boundary changes enacted by legislation; the limited capacity of local authorities to determine the rate of local taxes and the fact that a large proportion of local revenues (more than half) still comes from the State budget which limits the financial autonomy enjoyed by local authorities."

The report called on "national authorities to modify the definition of terrorism in the current legislation so that it is defined in a way not allowing for an overly broad interpretation and ensuring a strict government enforcement and respect of human rights and values of representative democracy and to stop the current practice of the removal of mayors without court decisions with the aim to respect the presumption of innocence and the system of democratically elected representatives."

The report also "invited national authorities to discontinue the practice of appointing a governmental trustee in municipalities where the mayor has been suspended; to ensure that the candidates who were admitted to run in the elections and won them can effectively enjoy their right to carry out their mandate; to introduce legal amendments so that the governor will no longer be de jure the head of the special provincial administration and the chairman of the executive committee; to implement the constitutional principle of administrative tutelage at the lowest possible level of intensity; to reinforce consultation of local authorities and to increase the proportion of own local revenues."