To Written Question No. 348 on the Council of Europe's draft convention on civil liability for damage resulting from activities dangerous to the environment

11 March 1993

Doc. 6794

REPLY

from the Committee of Ministers

to Written Question No. 348

by Mr STOFFELEN

on the Council of Europe's draft convention

on civil liability for damage resulting

from activities dangerous to the environment

I. Question (4 February 1993, Doc. 6767)

Mr STOFFELEN,

1. Having been informed that the Committee of Ministers is now very soon to finalise the Council of Europe's draft convention on civil liability for damage resulting from activities dangerous to the environment;

2. Considering that this is a highly important matter concerning the Council of Europe and its member states in which the Assembly should be allowed to fully play its consultative role;

3. Recalling that the Chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities, and the Chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, in April 1991 expressed the wish that the Assembly be officially consulted by the Committee of Ministers on this convention, and that the wish was duly transmitted to the Committee of Ministers by the President of the Assembly;

4. Convinced that the Assembly would be ready to prepare its opinion in three months' time and could adopt it at its May part-session;

5. To ask the Committee of Ministers:

Whether it intends to submit to the Assembly, for an opinion, the draft convention on civil liability for damage resulting from activities dangerous to the environment.

II. Reply by the Committee of Ministers (9 March 1993)

The Committee of Ministers welcomes the interest of Mr Stoffelen concerning the draft convention on civil liability for damage resulting from activities dangerous to the environment.

It recalls that this text was declassified in September 1990 and that the Assembly's Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities of the Parliamentary Assembly, at its meeting in Paris on 13 November 1992, gave a favourable reception to the draft.

Furthermore, the Assembly's Committee of Legal Affairs and Human Rights was represented both at the meeting of the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ), which adopted the text of the draft convention, and at the 18th Conference of European Ministers of Justice (Nicosia, 9-10 June 1992) which recommended that the draft be finalised as soon as possible.

As a result of the detailed consultations which have taken place with numerous bodies representing industry, insurance and the protection of the environment, the draft convention has sought a balance between the different interests.

The draft convention - which is the first of its kind in the world - deals with urgent questions affecting the public at large, organisations and governments. For these reasons and, especially in order to take account of the wishes of the Ministers of Justice, the Committee of Ministers decided on 9 March 1993, to adopt the convention and open it for signature on 21 June 1993 at the next Informal Meeting with the European Ministers of Justice (Lugano, 21-22 June 1993).