Zoltán Szente, research chair at HAS CCS Institute for Legal Studies, has been elected as Vice-Chair of the Group of Independent Experts for a four-year term. His election took place during the Group’s annual meeting held in Strasbourg on 19-20 September 2013. The Group is a consultative academic body of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and it brings together experts focusing on topics relating to local and regional democracy. The Group helps the Congress to lay the foundation for its decisions and provides assistance in the monitoring of local and regional democracy in Member States of Council of Europe.