Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l'Europe

(i) systematically co-ordinate, under the Work Programme, all regional planning activities whose specific aim it is to fashion natural environment and the socio-cultural framework of human life in both urban and rural communities ;

(ii) analyse the current trends in European society with a view to helping all European countries in the decisions they will have to take concerning regional planning, especially in the following fields : cultural affairs, social affairs, public health, nature and natural resources, local government ;

(iii) strengthen technical co-operation in these fields with non-member European countries confronted with the same problems of an industrial society ;

Municipal and regional affairs

5. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

(i) arrange for the Committee on Co-operation in Municipal and Regional Matters, with the help of experts and specialised institutes and in consultation with the local and regional communities represented in the European Conference of Local Authorities, to make a detailed comparative study of local and regional administrative structures in member countries, and especially of the methods by which states have adapted or intend to adapt these structures to the necessities of regional planning ;

(ii) instruct the Committee on Co-operation in Municipal and Regional Matters to undertake a general study of the responsibilities of municipalities and regions in the matter of regional planning ;

Conservation of nature and natural resources

6. Welcoming the adoption, in line with the Assembly's wishes, of a Water Charter, and the preparation of a Clean Air Charter in the form of a declaration of principles ;

7. Wishing every success for the preparations made for the organisation of a European Conservation Year in 1970, including a European Conference in Strasbourg in February 1970, particularly welcomes the intention to promote a Conservation Charter and a European Convention arising out of the Conference ;

8. Hopes that special attention will be given by the Conference to the inclusion in the proposed Charter of :

(i) provisions embodying the general rules of soil conservation and preventive measures to combat the impoverishment of the soil and to restore and maintain its ecological balance ;

(ii) rules to be observed by landscape planners in civil and rural engineering schemes so as to preserve or restore, as the case may be, those healthy and harmonious ecological and aesthetic features proper to every landscape ;

9. Further hopes that any manifesto or declaration that is prepared on the conservation and enhancement of the European natural environment will be designed as a general situation report and as a basis for a fresh approach to the conservation of nature and natural resources in the light of today's resources and forecasts for tomorrow ;

10. Calls on the Committee of Ministers to give full support for the Conservation Year especially by ensuring the co-operacion by all member states in the plans that have been prepared ;

Cultural field

11. Welcoming the detailed studies and achievements of the Council for Cultural Cooperation Symposia on the protection and rehabilitation of sites and areas of historical or artistic interest, points out the need for national, regional or local planning to include action in this field ;

12. Welcoming the efforts made in the framework of the Council for Cultural Cooperation as regards equipment for open-air pursuits and socio-cultural equipment in general,

13. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite the CCC to take account, in the course of its studies on socio-cultural equipment, of the problems raised by the siting of such equipment, whose systematic operation constitutes an effective means of implementing regional planning in general and of promoting rural revival and development in particular ;

Social and public health fields

14. Welcoming the results of the enquiries conducted by the governmental Social Committee into the social aspects of regional development in urban and rural areas,

15. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

(i) ensure the requisite diffusion of the aforesaid studies ;

(ii) instruct the European Public Health Committee to study all the health aspects of town and country planning, and in particular the effect of the growing proportion of the elderly in declining industrial regions.

[1]. Assembly debate on 10 May 1968 (9th Sitting) (see Doc. 2382, report of the Committee on Local Authorities).

Text adopted by the Assembly on 10 May 1968 (9th Sitting).