Council of Europe Europe is also present in other cities and countries. The Council of Europe Development Bank has its seat in Paris, the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe is established in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Centre for Modern Languages is in Graz, Austria. There are European Youth Centres in Budapest, Hungary, and in Strasbourg. The European Wergeland Centre, a new Resource Centre on education for intercultural dialogue, human rights and democratic citizenship, operated in cooperation with the Norwegian Government, opened in Oslo, Norway, in February 2009. The Council of Europe has offices in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia,
Congress of the Council of Europe is the effective monitoring of the situation of local and regional democracy in member states by assessing the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Through this process of monitoring, the Congress contributes, at territorial level, to the main objectives of the Council of Europe, which are to advance democracy and human rights on the continent. Monitoring is also part of an ongoing political dialogue with the different levels of governance in the State concerned. The Congress undertakes: • regular general country-by-country monitoring missions; • the examination of a particular aspect of the Charter; • fact-finding missions to look