While the week is overseen by the Council of Europe, it is each local and regional community which organizes events centered on the selected theme.
For the first time, municipalities in Morocco and Tunisia also registered as ELDW partners, in order to strengthen local democracy.
A total of 342 activities and events were organised by towns, cities, regions, national and international associations.
Motivating citizens to take part in decision-making processes at the grassroots level will be at the center of the 2013 edition of the European Local Democracy Week, under the leading theme “active citizenship: voting, sharing, participating”.
[1][2][3] While there are many goals and purposes behind the European Local Democracy Week, the primary ones are the following (as listed in the Council of Europe literature): The overriding messages to the annual event include: