[Documents/Docheader.htm]Erosion of the Mediterranean coastline: implications for tourism
Recommendation 1630 (2003)Doc. 10257
30 July 2004Reply from the Committee of Ministers
adopted at the 892nd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (8 July 2004)
1. The Committee of Ministers has considered Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1630 (2003) on the erosion of the Mediterranean coastline: implications for tourism. It has forwarded it to the governments of member states. All the recommendations of the Assembly are addressed to the member governments of the Council of Europe. Despite this fact, given the importance of the subject, the Committee of Ministers invited its Steering Committee for the Activities of the Council of Europe in the field of biological and landscape diversity (CO-DBP) to give comments on this Recommendation and provide the Assembly with information on what the Council of Europe is doing in the field of environmental protection, particularly concerning the problems of coastline.
2. Taking account of the comments formulated, the Committee of Ministers points out that specific consideration has been given to the question of the development of sustainable environmentally friendly tourism, in particular through various colloquies and conferences and pilot studies conducted in Latvia, Romania and Ukraine, leading to the adoption by the Committee of Ministers of a number of recommendations, in particular Recommendation No R (97) 9 on a policy for the development of sustainable environment-friendly tourism in coastal areas.
3. The Committee of Ministers supports the various proposals by the Parliamentary Assembly on monitoring and possibly restricting the use of coastlines for development purposes, especially tourism, and preserving their environmental qualities.
4. It furthermore believes that, in line with the Assembly Recommendation, particular attention must be paid to strengthening national legislation and administrative mechanisms for protecting coastlines and to implementing the principles set out in the Model Law on Sustainable Management of Coastal Zones, the European Code of Conduct for Coastal Zones and the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Spatial Development of the European Continent, especially in the countries of South-eastern Europe.
5. In conclusion, the Committee of Ministers agrees with the Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation aimed at stemming the erosion of the Mediterranean coastline by applying the various relevant instruments, administrative texts and agreements and, more generally, implementing policies for the sustainable development of environmentally friendly tourism that takes account of the socio-economic equilibrium of the regions and populations concerned.
6. It urges that all necessary measures be taken in order to speed up the process of signing and ratifying the European Landscape Convention and implement specific activities in this area.
7. The Committee of Ministers furthermore endorses the Parliamentary Assembly’s proposal for close cross-sector and intra-regional co-operation in the southern and south-eastern Mediterranean in the context of possible future work by the Organisation in the field of the conservation of the marine and coastal environment, in particular following the final declaration and the recommendations of the International Symposium on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity and Protected Areas (Dubrovnik, 16-17 October 2003) aimed at establishing a platform for regular dialogue between all the bodies working in the field of marine and coastal biodiversity.
8. The concerns relating to the conservation of Europe’s coastlines and, in particular, the Mediterranean coastline, could appropriately be included in the Programme of Activities to be carried out in the framework of the establishment of the Pan-European Ecological Network.