Doc. 9668

22 January 2003

Setting up a Committee for future generations

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr Goulet and others

The Assembly,

- Having signalled its determination to be involved in sustainable development issues, inter alia by organising hearings, during the Johannesburg Summit and then in Paris, within the framework of its Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, of the Chairman of the Committee for future generations of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and the Chairman of the Committee on the Environment of the Finnish Parliament,

      - Having familiarised itself with certain pilot schemes run in various member or observer States,

      - Having noted that such a committee might be competent firstly for texts on the environment, but also for those concerning bioethics, food safety, the energy sector, demography, education, technology, quality of life and town planning,

      - Aware that safeguarding future generations constitutes a major challenge and a responsibility for today's political class, in line with the declaration adopted on 12 November 1997 by the 29th General conference of UNESCO,

      - Recognising that the future generations who do not vote have no one to represent them,

      - Acknowledging that legislative texts are sometimes passed under pressure from political motives of the time, which prove to be at odds with the interests of future generations, who have no means of defending themselves,

      Decides to set up a Committee for future generations within the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, comprising members co-opted from each of the existing committees and empowered to issue opinions on texts and motions for recommendations, resolutions or orders, in order to advise the Assembly on their compatibility with the interests of future generations.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed¹:

Goulet, France, EDG

Agudo, Spain, SOC

Coifan, Romania, LDR

Dreyfus-Schmidt, France, SOC

Elo, Finland, SOC

Eörsi, Hungary, LDR

Ionescu, Romania, NR

Jansson, Finland, LDR

Korkeaoja, Finland, LDR

Lachat, Switzerland, EPP

Lengagne, France, SOC

Luhtanen, Finland, SOC

Martínez Casañ, Spain, EPP

Masseret, France, SOC

Prisăcaru, Romania, SOC

Provera, Italy, LDR

Puche, Spain, EPP

Schicker, Austria, SOC

Schmied, Switzerland, LDR

Seyidov, Azerbaijan, EDG

Stoyanova, Bulgaria, EPP

Timmermans, Netherlands, SOC

Tiuri, Finland, EPP

Vanoost, Belgium, SOC

Velikov, Bulgaria, NR

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

LDR: Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group