Need for a concerted European preparation of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Brazil, June 1992)

21 April 1992

Doc. 6600

1403-15/4/92-2-E

Report

on a concerted European preparation of the

United Nations Conference on the Environment

(Brazil, June 1992)

(Rapporteur: Mr BONDEVIK, Norway, Christian Democrat)

The problems

Environment policy went beyond national borders a long time ago. Elements such as water and air are by nature "transboundary" and protective measures therefore need to be likewise. And certain environment problems like the climate, climate change, the oceans and the ozone layer, are planetary ones.

Thus the environmental debate has taken on a planetary dimension and it was the General Assembly of the United Nations which decided on 22 December 1989 to convene a United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro for June 1992.

What will be the place of Europe? What will be the role of the Council of Europe in such a worldwide debate?

This is a topical issue at the Rio Conference and this is a real challenge for Europe.

I. DRAFT RESOLUTION

1. The Assembly refers to the motion for a resolution tabled in September 1991 on the need for a concerted European preparation of the United Nations Conference on the Environment (Doc. 6509).

2. It must be recognised, however, that at the time of tabling that motion the preparatory process was almost in its final stages and very few elements were left for a possible concerted European preparation of this conference.

3. On the other hand a common European position will be greatly needed in the process of follow-up to be given to the recommendations which will be adopted by the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) next June.

4. It is obvious that an important part of the Action Programme (Agenda 21, etc) will fall under the responsibility of individual national governments, but another important portion will, no doubt, be entrusted to regional organisations for implementation.

5. In this respect the role of the Council of Europe, as a regional organisation in the spirit of the United Nations Charter, will have to be underlined and its representation at the Rio Conference ensured on the intergovernmental as well as parliamentary level.

6. The long lasting experience of the Council of Europe in the field of environmental protection, going back to the early sixties, the manyfold levels of approach (ministerial, parliamentarian, local-regional authorities) and the very flexible methods of work (consensus finding, recommendations, charters, conventions) grant this organisation a unique position in the European context of formulating and implementing a comprehensive environmental policy.

7. The Parliamentary Assembly in particular can play a truly pan-European role in formulating such a policy thanks to its very flexible system with the "special guest" status.

8. The outcome of the first pan-European Parliamentary Conference on the Protection of East-West Environment held in Vienna in October 1990 has shown the common concern, the community of views and the positive feedback into the national decision-making process of such discussions.

9. The regular holding of debates on specific environmental matters and on general policy trends on national and international levels offers members of the Parliamentary Assembly and its "special guests" the unique opportunity to monitor the actual state of the environment and the political trends in these matters facilitating furthermore the formulation of common solutions which may be implemented on national levels.

10. Part of these solutions and action plans elaborated by the Assembly are integrated in the intergovernmental work of the Council of Europe, other proposals are directed to other international organisations such as OCDE, ECMT and the European Community.

11. For these reasons the Assembly invites all European organisations including those from the United Nations family having special responsibilities in the European area, to pay close attention to the outcome of the Rio Conference and to consider any possible follow-up in close concertation with the other regional organisations interested in these matters.

12. The Assembly also invites the intergovernmental side of the Council of Europe to give an active follow-up to the Rio Conference in the areas where its work has proved to be effective, such as nature and wildlife protection but also in the field of information and creating awareness and in that of preparing environmental laws.

13. The Assembly is conscious of the need for close co-operation and concertation with other European organisations active in this field such as the Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva), CSCE, OECD, the Nordic Council and the European Community and is willing to serve as a platform for such co-operation.

II. DRAFT ORDER

1. The Assembly considers that the United Nations Conference on the Environment (Brazil, June 1992) will have considerable consequences for Europe, and the Council of Europe.

2. This is why, with reference to its Resolution ... (1992) the Assembly decides to review the conclusions of the conference and its implications for the European region on the basis of a new report on the outcome of the conference and instructs its Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities to prepare such a report for its plenary session in January or May 1993.

III. EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

by Mr Bondevik

PART I: THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN

1. Origins

The worldwide environmental debate has been focused for the first time at the Stockholm Conference 1972 twenty years ago.

In spite of the absence of the Eastern European countries but with the significant participation of China, the Stockholm United Nations Conference was probably the largest international meeting organised so far (1 200 delegates, 700 observers, more than 1 500 representatives of the mass media).

The conclusions and results of that conference may be illustrated first of all in the light of the Final Declaration. This text proclaims as a duty for all governments to ensure the protection and improvement of the human environment and this duty is stated as founded on the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of natural law. This amounts to a moral commitment to pay due regard also to the international repercussions of government policies and to co-operate at planetary level to resolve all common problems in this field.

On the other side, the conference was fully aware of the importance of regional co-operation in carrying forward or in implementing the principles of the Declaration as well as the numerous measures advocated in the recommendations that it adopted. Indeed, a large number of recommendations specifically urge governments to co-operate at regional level and through regional intergovernmental organisations.

As a matter of fact, 109 recommendations have been adopted by the conference aiming at giving concrete effects to the more general Final Declaration. An important feature of most of these recommendations is that environment protection and improvement are directly linked with economic and social development policies.

Having laid strong emphasis on the responsibility of local and national governments in the field of environment policy, the United Nations conference emphasised likewise the importance of planning and management in government policy and also as an essential tool for reconciling conflicts between development requirements and the need to protect and to improve the environment.

With regard to institutional arrangements the Stockholm Conference had proposed the setting up of a governing council for environmental programmes which became UNEP ("United Nations Environment Programmes") and an additional financing system for environmental programmes through a voluntary environmental fund.

2. The engagement of the Council of Europe

The Council of Europe had not to await the Stockholm Conference before it engaged in environmental and natural resources protection. Its manifold activities on nature conservation, water, noise and air pollution problems had been initiated by the Parliamentary Assembly ten years earlier and led to the European Conservation Year 1970, highlighted by a very large public information campaign and by the European Conservation Conference held in Strasbourg from 9 to 12 February 1970.

Delegates of ministerial, parliamentarian and administrative level of the then seventeen member countries of the Council of Europe numbered about 170. Ten non-member countries including three delegations from Central and Eastern European countries were also taking part in the conference.

The "Declaration on the Management of the Natural Environment of Europe" adopted by the European Conservation Conference underlined "that the policies and measures proposed by it cannot be effective unless governments strengthen, develop and co-ordinate their co-operative efforts within existing international organisations".

To this end the conference urged the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to convene as a matter of urgency a European Ministerial Conference with a view to - among others:

- review and promote the co-ordination of the respective programmes of the existing intergovernmental organisations in Europe;

- examine the proposal to create a European authority aiming at supervising the management of the natural environment;

- examine the proposal of creating a European Fund for combating pollution.

The conference proposed also that the Council of Europe be charged to draw up a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing the right of every individual to enjoy a healthy and unspoiled environment.

A report submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly very strongly supported the recommendations of the conference (Recommendation 603 and Resolution 445 from 1970) and the active support given by the Assembly hastened the conveying of a first Conference of the European Ministers responsible for the Environment in Vienna (March 1973). The ministers of 23 European governments including those from Romania and Yugoslavia took part in this important event.

The conclusions and recommendations of the Ministerial Conference on Planning and Management of the Natural Environment, on measures for the conservation of wildlife, on information, education and training "desirous of contributing to the implementation of the United Nations action plan for the human environment" have been addressed to the Council of Europe and to the participating governments "acknowledging that their environmental action should be within the general framework of the Declaration of Principles and the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment as approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972.

Besides its participation in the Vienna Conference (a Parliamentary delegation had a colloquy with the Ministers responsible for the Environment) the Assembly was discussing one of its periodic reports on recent developments of environmental policies in Europe and invited in its Recommendation 699 (1973) "the governements of member states to take action at European level on the proposals of the Stockholm Conference, in particular those who envisage: (inter alia)

a. an active contribution to international research programmes ...

b. a common definition, in co-operation with international organisations concerned, of quality standards and tolerance thresholds ...

c. creation of an international system for the exchange of information ...

d. establishment of a European pollution monitoring system

e. participation in creating a United Nations Environmental Secretariat.

The Assembly also recommended that the specialised services of the Council of Europe be used as a European "relay" for the Environmental Secretariat of the United Nations as envisaged at the Stockholm Conference.

3. The particular role of the Parliamentary Assembly

All over the past years the Parliamentary Assembly has taken position and addressed recommendations to member governments and other European or international organisations regarding important environmental issues. Such topics were - among many others - wildlife protection and its European legal instrument (Bern Convention), the protection of sensitive areas (the Alps, coastlines), industry, energy and the environment, environmental education, air pollution problems, acid rain and ozone layer including political support given by Recommendation 867 (1979) to the European Convention on long-range transboundary air pollution adopted by the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe (Geneva).

A whole range of activities were devoted to the protection and management of freshwater with very early attention drawn to the groundwater resources but likewise attention given to the sea pollution problems.

Forestry, soil pollution, nuclear energy, waste and noise have also been on the agenda of environmental debates of the Council of Europe's Assembly.

The idea of a common basis of guiding principles for an effective environment policy came in a very early stage into the programme of action of the Council of Europe. However the first set of guiding principles for action were limited to specific sectors like the "European Water Charter" (1968), the "Declaration of Principles on Air Pollution Control" (1968), the "European Soil Charter" (1972) or more recently the "European Conservation Strategy" (1990).

In 1990 the Assembly has adopted its Recommendation 1130 on the formulation of a European Charter and a European Convention on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development. However, the idea of a binding European legal instrument in the field of environmental protection is not a new one. It has been launched during the European Conservation Year 1970 but could not get the necessary consensus on the governmental level. The recent project foresees a two stage procedure:

Elaboration of a European Charter on environmental protection containing policy principles which are acceptable for most (if not all) European governments.

On the basis of such a Charter a more stringent European Convention could be formulated and the range of protection being enlarged by subsequent additional protocols. In the view of the Assembly such a European charter and (or) convention could stimulate and accelerate the formulation of a planetary convention on these issues. Politically speaking, Europe could take the lead in the field of environment protection in the same way as it has done in the field of human rights protection.

The well established machinery of the Council of Europe for the elaboration of legal instruments seems indeed to offer the best prerequisites for such approach on the largest geographic scale of Europe.

The pan-European approach can already be envisaged through the Parliamentary Assembly in connection with its system of special guest status.

A first pan-European Parliamentary Conference on the Protection of East-West Environment had already been organised by the Parliamentary Assembly in October 1990 in Vienna and a second conference is planned for October 1992 which would concentrate on the problem of freshwater management in Europe as one of the most crucial issues for the whole of Europe in the coming decade.

The global concern has not been absent from the Assembly's approach to the environment: in the light of its 7th Parliamentary and Scientific Conference, held in Ottawa from 11 to 14 June 1990 the Assembly adopted on 30 January 1991 its Recommendation 1140 on global environmental change and the role of science and democracy.

In the Public Campaign on North-South Interdependence and Solidarity organised by the Council of Europe in 1988 in co-operation with the European Community the preservation of the environment was considered as a major issue of joint responsibility (see Recommendation 1095). Following this campaign the Parliamentary Assembly decided to launch a special action plan for the preservation of tropical forests and the global climate. After having organised a public parliamentary hearing on this complex problem in 1989 in Lausanne a report has been presented to the Assembly and at the close of a full debate in May 1989 the Assembly adopted its Resolution 919 on "the destruction of tropical forests - causes and remedies", offering a political action plan to help Council of Europe member states as well as the competent international organisations in shaping the policies and strategies for a joint international action required to effectively preserve the tropical forests and its biodiversity.

4. The Brundtland report and its implications

In 1987 the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development "Our Common Future", known as the Brundtland report has been published and the world wide echo initiated by this report is well known.

In April 1988 the member countries of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) welcomed the initiative of the Government of Norway to organise a regional conference with the purpose inter alia to reviewing progress in the follow-up of selected aspects of the WCED report.

This conference has been organised in May 1990 in Bergen as a regional follow-up Conference aiming at translating the concept of sustainable development into a plan of action in the regional context.

Two topics of the Brundtland report have been singled out and put on the agenda of the Bergen Conference:

1. The necessary conditions for sustainable development (economics of sustainability, awareness raising and public participation);

2. Key policy areas (energy uses - industrial activities).

It was understood that the results of the conference should serve as an input for the global conference to be organised in Rio.

The conference was organised in such a way as to permit in the first half representatives from industry, labour and non-governmental organisations to express their views and in the second part the ministerial representatives from member governments of the ECE region. It must be noted that the Council of Europe as an institution and the Secretary General in person have been invited to take part in both sections of the conference.

* *

PART II: THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

(Rio de Janeiro, 1-12 June 1992)

1. The origins and preparation of the conference

The General Assembly of the United Nations decided on 22 December 1989 (Resolution 44/228) to convene a United Nations Conference on Environment and Development "at the highest possible level of participation". Following an invitation from the government of Brazil it was decided to hold the conference from 1 to 12 June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.

By a letter, dated 25 February 1992, the Council of Europe has been invited to participate "in the capacity of observer" in the United Nations Conference in Brazil.

A preparatory committee has been set up in order to deal with organisational and thematic questions of the conference. The secretarial assistance is granted mainly through the Secretariat of UNEP but almost all specialised agencies of the United Nations family have been closely associated with the preparatory work.

A first session of the Preparatory Committee was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, from 5 to 16 March 1990 dealing with organisational matters.

A second (substantive) session was held in Nairobi from 6 to 31 August of the same year. A third plenary session of the Preparatory Committee was held in Geneva from 12 August to 4 September 1991 and a last session is due to be held from 2 March to 3 April 1992 in New York. The thematic preparation has been run by three main working groups in charge of very broad items.

2. Main questions on the agenda of the conference

In principle all possible environmental issues will be on the agenda of the Conference. However focus will be laid on "cross sectoral issues" linking environment with development issues including questions such as demography and growth, financial resources, transfer of technology and role of major groups (for example, women, youth, indigenous people, NGOs, local authorities, trade unions, farmers, etc). Major themes, as elaborated by the working groups will be:

a. Protection of the atmosphere:

- climate change;

- ozone depletion;

- transboundary air pollution.

b. Land resources:

- deforestation;

- soil loss;

- desertification and drought.

c. Conservation of biological diversity;

d. Environmentally sound management of biotechnology;

e. Protection of the oceans and all kinds of seas and their living resources;

f. Protection of the quality and supply of freshwater resources;

g. Environmentally sound management of wastes, particularly hazardous wastes and toxic chemicals as well as prevention of illegal international traffic of such waste;

h. Survey of existing international agreements and instruments and its follow-up;

i. Principles on general rights and obligations;

k. Other legal, institutional and related matters.

The conference will discuss these items on the basis of hundreds of documents:

- national reports and contributions;

- reports submitted by sectoral and regional organisations of the United Nations family;

- reports from other international governmental and non-governmental organisations;

- reports on regional preparatory meetings and actions;

- reports and resolutions of the Preparatory Committee and its different working groups.

The results of the conference are expected to be consolidated by:

a. an Earth Charter (a solemn declaration on guiding principles in the field of environment and development for action on national and international level);

b. an outline convention on climate change;

c. a global convention on biological diversity, aiming at protecting fragile and endangered biotopes;

d. a global convention on forestry putting sustainable management into focus (a doubtful issue);

e. a broad action plan, known as "Agenda 21" (a reference to Principle N° 21 adopted at the Stockholm Conference in 1972) which should contain and spell out principles for action in the different fields, indicate timetables and serve as a guide to the follow-up to the Rio Conference.

"Agenda 21" is supposed to become a high level political commitment to an action plan for the coming years. Its draft is a catalogue of actions divided in four sections, each containing several chapters:

Section I: The social and economic dimension;

Section II: Conservation and management of resources for a balanced development;

Section III: Strengthening the role of major groups;

Section IV: Means for implementation.

In Chapter 7 of this section the role of regional organisations and co-operation is dealt with. In a report of the Secretary General of the conference it is stated that "while most of the follow-up actions under Agenda 21 will be dealt with at the national level, almost all programme documents refer to regional requirements and co-operation, the need for regional centres of excellence, exchange of information, data collection etc".

It is said furthermore that "consolidation and harmonisation of regional and sub-regional activities and actions are necessary". It is also hoped that regional commissions and other regional programmes of the United Nations system, "as well as other regional organisations", will review their programmes in the light of Agenda 21, once approved.

This clearly indicates that a regional organisation like the Council of Europe has a role to play in the implementation of Agenda 21, the action plan, which shall be adopted by the Rio Conference.

3. The Council of Europe's possible contribution

Perhaps more than most other areas environmental protection and policy is a matter for people's support and consensus. It therefore is important that all levels of decision-making, including the ordinary citizen, are in one way or another, involved in the elaboration of any environmental policy. In this respect the Council of Europe has some unique potentialities offering a platform for information, discussion, consensus and even for decision-making for ministers, governmental official members of national parliaments, members of regional or city parliaments and other representatives of local administration on the issues of environmental protection in the European area, covering virtually the whole of geographic Europe from the Açores to the Ural.

Indeed, the membership of 26 states today will grow to 27 and probably 30 in the next few months and other national legislative assemblies are already involved in the parliamentary debates of the Council of Europe thanks to the mechanism of "special guest status" offered to them.

On the other side it may be recalled that the Council of Europe was the first European organisation to become alert to ecological problems. It was indeed in April 1961 that the Parliamentary Assembly adopted its Recommendation 284 at the conclusion of a major debate on the protection of nature in Europe urging the establishment, within the Council of Europe, of a permanent system of co-operation in matters concerning the protection of nature in Europe.

Important steps have been:

- 1962: + setting up of the Committee of Experts for the Conservation of Nature and Landscape

- 1967: + setting up of the European Information Center for Nature

Conservation

+ European Water Charter

- 1968: + "Declaration of Principles" on air pollution control

+ Presentation by the Assembly of a draft European Convention

on the Protection of Freshwater Against Pollution

+ European Agreement on the Restriction of the Use of Certain

Detergents in Washing and Cleaning Products

- 1970: + The European Conservation Year

- 1973: + First meeting of the European Ministerial Conference on the

Environment

- 1979: + European Convention on the Conservation of Wildlife and

Natural Habitats

While the attention of the Assembly has always been directed to the overall and specific problems of the human environment the intergovernmental work of the Council was gradually focused on the problems of nature conservation and protection of natural resources, partly in order to avoid duplicating the work of other international organisations. As a result of this we can point to three specific and significant contributions of the Council of Europe to the European environmental protection:

a. the preservation and management of natural resources;

b. creation of public awareness through the "Naturopa Center";

c. promoting ideas and principles for an effective environmental law system.

a. Preservation and management of natural resources

This area has been dealt with by a very large range of activities: for example preparation of inventories of the different ecosystems in Europe and by carrying out of consolidated studies of these ecosystems and of Europe's rare and endangered species. In 1973 the Committee of Ministers adopted a Resolution on the European Terminology for Protected Areas in order to offer clear criteria for the creation of protected areas.

Another resolution set up a European Network of Biogenetic Reserves, which is intended to protect the greatest possible number of representative examples of Europe's natural habitats.

The Council has also introduced the European Diploma with a view to protecting Europe's most prestigious natural site. The distinction is awarded for a limited time and will be renewed only if the protecting principles are really applied.

The most interesting instrument set up for protecting both species and their habitat is the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitat from 1979, known as "the Bern Convention". By its very nature the Convention has a mission going beyond the borderlines of Europe. Indeed, the protection of migratory species gives the convention a clear dimension of North-South interdependence and together with the 21 member states plus Bulgaria having so far ratified the Convention, the Senegal and Burkina Faso have also adhered to it whilst Tunisia and Morocco have been invited to join.

b. Creating public awareness and promoting environmental law

In implementing this convention member states have undertaken to have regard to the conservation of flora and fauna in their planning and development policies.

This policy has greatly been oriented over the past decades by the many recommendations, resolutions and charters elaborated by the different bodies of the Council of Europe such as the Water Charter, the Declaration of Principles on Air Pollution Control, the Soil Charter, the Ecological Charter for Mountain Regions and, more recently the "European Conservation Strategy" adopted in 1990, which has incorporated and updated the previous texts aiming to offering guidelines for a new environmental policy based on common principles. Together with the recent proposals of the Assembly on a European Charter and a European Convention on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development the Council of Europe should be enabled to go ahead with new initiatives on the way to a more binding and coherent environmental law for Europe.

As another step the conclusion of a draft convention on damage resulting from activities dangerous to the environment has been announced for this year. On the other side the Council of Europe has acquired a solid experience in creating public awareness for the problems of the environment in particular through the activities of the Documentation and Information Centre for the Environment (Naturopa Centre) set up in 1967. Through its publications, posters, periodicals and specialised campaigns this centre has greatly contributed over the past 25 years to make nature and the natural environment a key issue for public opinion and its entry into the political debate.

4. Special challenges for Europe

Possible climate change, the ozone layer etc are surely matters for global concern but other aspects of our environment have a specific European dimension such as freshwater protection and management. International watercourses like the Rhine or Danube are of a pan-European concern.

Distribution and utilisation of freshwater is likely to become a transboundary problem in the coming years in Europe also and will have to be tackled by a common European policy. The initiative taken by the Committee on Environment and its Rapporteur, Mr Pistre, and backed by the Assembly, aiming at launching a vast movement for the protection of freshwater in Europe is a highly needed action in order to promote such a common policy and an action plan for a "Blue Europe".

Another challenge for European environmental policy will be the full integration of Central and Eastern European countries in this effort of paramount importance to restore a heavily damaged countryside, soil, water and air. Obviously the economic situation of these countries does not permit to them to find the gigantic investments necessary for a meaningful environmentally oriented development policy. Such a policy only will succeed if Western European countries are ready to support, technically and financially this policy.

The implementation of such a new policy implies, however, beyond financial aid, the transfer of technical know-how, the exchange of information and experience and the regular participation, at all levels of decision making, in the political debate around environmental issues, which is more and more led within the framework of international and European organisations such as ECE (Geneva), OECD, CSCE, the Council of Europe, the European Community or the Nordic Council. Each of them has its specific profile, but all together are important partners for the new emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe.

With regard to the Council of Europe it can be stated that its specific contribution can be mainly in the field of the parliamentary discussion and the preparation of the decision-making process on the level of their national parliaments. This discussion is also led on the level of local and regional authorities through the work of the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe. Another feature of the Council, mainly on the level of intergovernmental co-operation is its law building mechanism through elaboration of European agreements and conventions. Finally, the building of environmental awareness can greatly be promoted all over Europe thanks to the action of the Council's "Naturopa Center" which had already its contact and information network extended to Central and Eastern Europe in the early seventies.

5. Conclusion

In spite of the huge preparatory work done so far for the Rio Conference, its outcome with regard to concrete and binding action is still not quite clear, owing to large divergent opinions and attitudes of the world community.

It is therefore most likely that special emphasis shall be laid on "Agenda 21" the action plan to be implemented as a follow-up to the Rio Conference on the level of regional organisations.

In this respect the Council of Europe will have an important role to play. This organisation can indeed offer a full range of tools to implement in the geographic area of Europe many of the recommendations which are likely to be adopted by the Rio Conference.

After the Rio Conference and on the basis of its recommendations the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly must discuss how to give a follow-up to these matters.

It will be necessary, however, that the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly seeks close co-operation with other intergovernmental organisations who are active in this field namely the Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva), the OECD, the CSCE, the Nordic Council and the European Community.

Reporting committee: Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities.

Budgetary implications for the Assembly: None.

Reference to committee: Doc. 6509 and Reference N°. 1755 of 25 November 1991.

Draft recommendation: Unanimously adopted by the committee on 10 April 1992.

Members of the committee: MM. Cuatrecasas (Chairman), Ruffy, Lord Newall (Alternate: Lord Kinnoull) (Vice-Chairmen), MM Adamowicz, Balligand, Benassi, Gudmundur Bjarnason, Mrs Blunck, MM Bondevik, Büchel, Demiralp, Dimmer, Mrs Dromberg, MM Efraimoglou, Eversdijk (Alternate: Eisma), Fahey, Feldmann (Alternate: Antretter), Frendo, Gonzalez Laxe, Mrs Graenitz, MM Hardy, Hellström, Olof Johansson (Alternate: Mrs Ekman), Jung, Kobylka, Konstantopoulos, Lanner, Lotz, Meszaros, Monfils, Petitpierre, Pinto, Pistre, Reis Leite, Rubner (Alternate: Parisi), Mrs Sahligerova, Mr Sarens, Mrs Severinsen, MM Slomka (Alternate: Smolarek), Talay, Sir Donald Thompson, MM Triglia, Tummers, Zierer.

NB: The names of those who took part in the vote are underlined.

Secretaries of the committee: Mr Larcher and Mrs Cagnolati-Staveris.