Reply to Recommendation 1280 (1995) on the second session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) (30 May-1 June 1995)

Reply to Recommendation 1280 (1995) on the second session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) (30 May - 1 June 1995)

Communication from the Committee of Ministers

Doc. 7839

4 June 1997

Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 28 May 1997 at the 593rd meeting of the Ministers' Deputies

The Committee of Ministers took note with interest of Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1280 (1995) which it examined with utmost care. It wishes to give the following reply to the Assembly:

1.With regard to the budget of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe and the possibility that the Congress should have a degree of financial independence by means of the budgetary package system, the Committee of Ministers wishes to inform the Assembly that the (initial) budgets of the CLRAE, which must remain within the limits of the overall budget of the Council of Europe, are:

1995:12,575,000 FF

1996:13,000,000 FF (+3.38%)

1997:14,805,000 FF (+13.88%).

In the 1997 budget, head 5.2 (Other operational expenditure of the Congress) is considered to be a budgetary package, within which the Congress can make the adjustments necessary in the course of the year.

2.The Assembly has requested the Committee of Ministers to inform member States regularly of the state of signature and ratification of conventions, to invite them to accede to conventions and, if possible, to improve ways of monitoring their application.

Member States are informed that States have ratified or acceded to conventions by means of regular reports from the Secretariat. The Assembly is also informed by means of the statutory reports. The Committee of Ministers does not interfere in the internal process leading to the signature or ratification of conventions by member States, but makes a point of stressing, when this is justified, the importance of the conventions open for signature and the political significance of widespread accession in the interests of enlargement of the European legal area and the consolidation of democratic security.

Certain conventions provide for monitoring procedures, which it is up to the contracting parties, sometimes with the support of the Council of Europe, to put into practice. As a matter of general policy, the Committee of Ministers attaches the utmost importance to the honouring by member States of their obligations under conventions.

3.The draft Convention on Interterritorial Co-operation prepared by the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe in 1993 is currently being examined by the Committee of Experts on Transfrontier Co-operation (LR-R-CT).

Its work has already led to the drafting of a first Protocol to the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities. The Protocol was adopted by the Committee of Ministers and opened for signature on 9 November 1995.

The Committee then examined other aspects of interterritorial co-operation, which did not come under the heading of transfrontier co-operation, and two approaches were put forward, one being the preparation of another protocol to the above-mentioned Outline Convention, and the other being the adoption of a recommendation. The committee of experts has finished its work and submitted its conclusions to the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Authorities (CDLR). The texts adopted by the CDLR could therefore be submitted to the Committee of Ministers by the end of the year. The Assembly will be informed of further developments in this matter.

4.The European Charter of Mountain Regions is the subject of a specific Recommendation 1274 (1995), to which the Committee of Ministers has already given a reply. It now wishes to add that, at their 591st meeting, the Ministers' Deputies confirmed that the terms of reference given to the Working Party on Mountain Regions and Rural Areas provided that the Working Party should prepare a draft European Charter of mountain regions on the basis of Recommendation 14 (1995) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe and a draft European Charter for rural areas on the basis of Recommendation 1296 (1996) of the Parliamentary Assembly. The Deputies also extended, until 30 June 1998, the deadline by which the Group, in which the Assembly is represented, should finish its work.

5.With regard to the place of environment within the Council of Europe, the Committee of Ministers notes that the Assembly also adopted Recommendation 1284 (1996), on the same subject, a few months after Recommendation 1280. Since it has replied to the latter Recommendation with updated information on intergovernmental co-operation in the field of the environment, the Committee of Ministers refers the Assembly to it for a comprehensive reply.