Doc. 8388

26 April 1999

Modification of the procedure for adoption of Council of Europe Conventions

Reply to Recommendation 1361 (1998)

adopted at the 668^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (20-22 April 1999)

The Committee of Ministers has carefully examined Recommendation 1361 (1998) of the Parliamentary Assembly on the modification of the procedure for adoption of Council of Europe Conventions, including in the light of the final report of the Committee of Wise Persons and, acknowledging the proposals of the Parliamentary Assembly, wishes to give the following reply.

Since the first years of the Council of Europe’s existence, the Committee of Ministers has sought to complement the provisions of the Statute of the Council of Europe concerning the competence of the Assembly, by adopting several texts on this matter.

In May 1952 the Ministers' Deputies adopted Resolution (52) 26 on consultation of the Consultative Assembly. According to this Resolution the Committee of Ministers may, in appropriate cases, invite the Assembly to give its reasoned opinion, to be presented within a fixed time-limit, on draft Conventions drawn up by the Committee of Ministers.

The Committee of Ministers further decided in April 1985 (76th Session) that the Assembly should, as a rule, be given the opportunity to express an opinion on draft Conventions through its relevant committees. Furthermore, the representation of the Assembly in Convention Committees shall be examined on a case-by-case basis. If such representation is not provided for in the Convention, contacts between Assembly representatives and the Committee concerned shall remain possible. In addition, the Parliamentary Assembly is also represented on several Steering Committees.

The Committee of Ministers adopted a statutory Resolution at its 8th Session in May 1951, providing for a Joint Committee composed of members of the Committee of Ministers and the Assembly. The Joint Committee may be seized of any problem which is common to the two organs, including if appropriate the text of a draft Convention.

In practice in recent years, the Assembly has been consulted regularly on recent major Conventions. The Committee of Ministers welcomes the opinions on draft treaties submitted to it by the Assembly and always endeavours to take them into account to the maximum extent possible.

In view of the above, the Committee of Ministers agrees that it will consult the Parliamentary Assembly in the future on all draft treaties. However, in practice a small number of treaties, of an exclusively technical nature, may not require such a consultation.

In addition to such formal consultation, the Committee of Ministers wishes to stress the importance of active participation of the Assembly in the work of the Steering Committees on which it is represented, thus enabling the Steering Committees to take account of any views of the Assembly when drafting treaties. In addition, further flexible modalities for consultation in early stages of the drafting of treaties can be envisaged on an ad hoc basis.

The Committee of Ministers will examine in due course the practical modalities of its relationship with the Assembly on this and all other related matters, particularly in the light of any proposals that the Parliamentary Assembly may wish to make in this respect.