Reply to Recommendation 1329 (1997) - Follow-up to the Mediterranean Conference on Population, Migration and Development (Palma de Mallorca, 15-17 October 1996)

Doc. 8062

6 April 1998

Follow-up to the Mediterranean Conference on Population, Migration and Development (Palma de Mallorca, 15-17 October 1996)

Reply to Recommendation 1329 (1997)

from the Committee of Ministers

adopted on 31 March 1998 at the 625th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies

1. Having considered Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1329 (1997) on the follow-up to the Mediterranean Conference on Population, Migration and Development (Palma de Mallorca, 15-17 October 1996), the Committee of Ministers wishes to assure the Assembly of its interest in closer ties between Europe and the South and East of the Mediterranean. The Recommendation was transmitted to member Governments in June 1997, i.e. immediately after its adoption, following the decision taken by the Ministers' Deputies at their 595th meeting. The Final Declaration of the last Summit of Heads of State and Government of the member States of the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, 10-11 October 1997) does not lose sight of this important aspect of European policy. In it, the Heads of State and Government declare their determination to encourage “understanding between the citizens of the North and the South, in particular through information and civic education for young people, as well as initiatives aimed at promoting mutual respect and solidarity among peoples”.

2. With regard more particularly to co-operation among young people, the Committee of Ministers wishes to recall that youth organisations may apply to the Council of Europe’s European Youth Foundation for exchanges between young people from North and South. In December 1996, a Euro-Arab symposium for mutual understanding and co-operation was organised jointly by the Council of Europe’s Youth Directorate, the North-South Centre in Lisbon and the youth platforms. Some one hundred partners from various youth organisations in numerous European and Arab countries who wished to broaden their contacts took part in this event. Since then some participants from Mediterranean non-member countries have been admitted to study sessions and to training and language courses organised by the European Youth Centres.

3. Moreover, following Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1319 (1997) on the organisation by the Council of Europe of a second European campaign on North-South interdependence and solidarity in 1998, the Committee of Ministers, at the 615th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies (20 January 1998), decided that the Council of Europe should organise a campaign on global interdependence and solidarity: Europe against poverty and social exclusion. It is envisaged that the campaign be launched on the occasion of the Council of Europe Day in Lisbon during the 1998 World Exposition. An International Organising Committee of the Campaign has been instructed to draw up proposals for action to be taken. Following the decision taken by the Ministers' Deputies at their 621st meeting (18-19 February 1998), the first meeting of this Committee was held on 16 March 1998. It goes without saying that the North-South Centre’s experience and expertise in trans-Mediterranean co-operation will be widely used in the implementation of this project.

4. The actions targeted by the Committee of Ministers in the field of Euro-Mediterranean co-operation always involve numerous partners at local, national and international levels. For example, the Committee of Ministers supports the establishment of direct links between local authorities in different countries in pursuance of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The Committee of Ministers also holds in high regard the Conferences of Mediterranean Regions, organised jointly by the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE). It welcomes the approach of the Vth of these conferences, which is to be held in Montpellier this year and already shows every sign of being an important event for North-South contacts in the Mediterranean Basin. The Committee would also inform the Assembly of a CLRAE conference on “Local and Regional Authorities in the face of Mediterranean Migration Flows: from Intolerance to Development”, held in Bari (Italy) on 2 and 3 October 1997.

5. The Committee of Ministers noted with great interest the conclusions of the Mediterranean Conference on Population, Migration and Development (Palma de Mallorca, 15-17 October 1996), which closed a whole cycle of Council of Europe studies on demographic trends, economic development and migration flows in the Mediterranean (1991-1996).

6. Generally speaking, the Committee of Ministers supports co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Commission in the framework of the Barcelona process, provided that the activities to be undertaken are agreed jointly, according to financial conditions to be defined and without there being any duplication between the two institutions. In this spirit, the Council of Europe and the European Commission are at this moment negotiating the joint organisation in 1998 of a Euro-Mediterranean colloquy on international judicial co-operation in the criminal field.

7. As regards the invitation to non-member States in the Mediterranean Basin to take part as observers in certain activities in the Council of Europe, the Committee of Ministers is ready to consider requests of this kind from States such as Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia as well as the Palestinian Authority.