Creation of a hydrotechnical Euro-Mediterranean institute of the Council of Europe (water technology and management)

Doc. 9027

11 April 2001

Creation of a hydrotechnical Euro-Mediterranean institute of the Council of Europe (water technology and management)

Recommendation 1471 (2000)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 748^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (3 April 2001)

The Committee of Ministers has considered Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1471 (2000) on the creation of a hydrotechnical Euro-Mediterranean institute of the Council of Europe (water technology and management). The Committee of Ministers is aware of the importance of the Mediterranean region, including its parts outside Europe, for Europe’s future.

The Committee of Ministers fully agrees that an all-embracing approach is necessary to address the challenges facing countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region, as outlined in paragraph 5.ii of the Recommendation. It also agrees that the education sector has a role to play in fostering environmental awareness among the younger generation; efficient use of water is a vital aspect of this awareness. As for the proposal to establish a hydrotechnical institute, the Committee of Ministers shares the opinions of its specialised Committee, CC-HER, which acknowledges the potential interest of the proposal, but “under the current conditions of budgetary restraint, however, strongly doubts whether it would be advisable for the Council of Europe to make a financial contribution to an institute of this kind”. Consequently, a direct financial contribution from a general budget of the Council of Europe will not be possible.

With regard to point 8.i of the Recommendation, the Deputies communicated it to the Committee of Permanent Correspondents of the EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement for opinion. The Committee instructed the Executive Secretary of the Agreement to promote co-operation between this new institute and the Agreement, and in particular, its associated European centre on flooding at Chisinau (Moldova), also with a view to preparing a series of conferences on risk prevention (fresh water and salt water), to be held in Strasbourg and Ukraine, and examining of the scope for making use of the Internet to monitor water quality in the spirit of implementation of the Agreement’s EDRIM programme.

The EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement could recognise the Institute as one of the Agreement’s Euro-Mediterranean centres. The Committee of Ministers will keep the Assembly informed on possible future developments of this initiative.