19 February 1992

Doc. 6580

R E P L Y

from the Committee of Ministers

to Written Question No. 342

by Mr RUFFY and Mrs LENTZ-CORNETTE

on urgent measures for Albania

I.       Question (7 February 1992, Doc. 6570)

      Mr RUFFY and Mrs LENTZ-CORNETTE,

      To ask the Committee of Ministers,

Whether the terms of reference of the Council of Europe's urgent measures for Albania could be adjusted so as to include a paediatric dimension to action being taken on behalf of children at school, thus enabling rapid practical effect to be given to Assembly Recommendation 1171 (1991) on priority needs of the Paediatrics Institute in Tirana - given that the report and inventory on which this recommendation is based have been the subject of a positive evaluation by professional authorities in Switzerland.

II.       Reply from the Committee of Ministers (13 February 1992)

      The Committee of Ministers has considered with the greatest attention the written question by Mr Ruffy and Mrs Lentz-Cornette, which follows Assembly Recommendation 1171 (1991) on the situation of hospitals in Albania: priority needs of the Paediatric Institute of Tirana.

      As the Committee of Ministers indicated in its interim reply of 8 January 1992 to Recommendation 1171 (1991), contacts have been established with the competent authorities in Albania in this field as well as with representations of Council of Europe member States in this country.

      In view of the request made by the two parliamentarians in their written question, the Committee of Ministers has instructed the Secretary General to make available the mechanism set up by the Council of Europe in the educational field, and to allow payments made towards the Paediatric Institute in Tirana to be collected on the special account "Emergency Aid to Albania", having regard to the action under way by the international Organisations, notably the WHO which is already established in Tirana.