Artikel 2

1. The Parties shall take all such measures as are necessary to give effect to the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority.
2. These measures for the exercise of the right to participate shall include:
(i) empowering local authorities to enable, promote and facilitate the exercise of the right to participate set out in this Protocol;
(ii) securing the establishment of: a) procedures for involving people which may include consultative processes, local referendums and petitions and, where the local authority has many inhabitants and/or covers a large geographical area, measures to involve people at a level close to them;
b) procedures for access, in accordance with the Party’s constitutional order and international legal obligations, to official documents held by local authorities;
c) measures for meeting the needs of categories of persons who face particular obstacles in participating; and
d) mechanisms and procedures for dealing with and responding to complaints and suggestions regarding the functioning of local authorities and local public services;
a) procedures for involving people which may include consultative processes, local referendums and petitions and, where the local authority has many inhabitants and/or covers a large geographical area, measures to involve people at a level close to them;
b) procedures for access, in accordance with the Party’s constitutional order and international legal obligations, to official documents held by local authorities;
c) measures for meeting the needs of categories of persons who face particular obstacles in participating; and
d) mechanisms and procedures for dealing with and responding to complaints and suggestions regarding the functioning of local authorities and local public services;
(iii) encouraging the use of information and communication technologies for the promotion and exercise of the right to participate set out in this Protocol.
3. The procedures, measures and mechanisms may be different for different categories of local authorities, having regard to their size and competences.
4. In the planning and decision-making processes concerning measures to be undertaken to give effect to the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority, local authorities shall be consulted insofar as possible, in due time and in an appropriate way.