Results of the 2nd European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (La Grande-Motte, 25-27 September 1973)

Recommendation 723 (1974)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 22 January 1974 (21st Sitting) (see Doc. 3378, report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1974 (21st Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having regard to the report by its Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities concerning the 2nd European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (Doc. 3378) ;

2. Gratified by the results of that conference and the excellent preparatory work by the Committee of Senior Officials ;

3. Noting with satisfaction that several states outside the Council of Europe participated in the conference, thus widening its scope and extending European cooperation in regional planning matters ;

4. Observing once more that regional planning, environmental policy and regional policy are in many respects three aspects of the same political objective, namely the improvement of human living conditions and the optimum rational management of natural resources ;

5. Endorsing the conference's definition of the ultimate aim of a European regional planning policy as being to improve man's well-being by means of an approach promoting the development of communities and their adaptation to new situations ;

6. Greatly hoping that the results of this conference will mark a further stage in European cooperation, and give an impetus to the Council of Europe's activities and Intergovernmental Work Programme, not only in the regional planning field, but also in the spheres of environmental protection and local authorities action,

7. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

A. As regards a follow-up to the proceedings of the conference

a. set up, in accordance with the proposal in paragraph 7. III. b , of Assembly Recommendation 720 (1973), a single committee for cooperation in regional planning and environmental matters, with the task of implementing the Intergovernmental Work Programme in these two major fields of activity, while ensuring that the various technical subcommittees working in specific sectors are closely coordinated ;

b. extend the activities of the European Information Centre for Nature Conservation to include regional planning in Europe, while increasing its resources ;

c. take action on the proposal in Resolution No. 2 of the ministerial conference, as well as in Assembly Recommendation 693 (1973), to set up an information bureau on frontier cooperation in the Council of Europe ;

d. instruct the Committee on Cooperation in Municipal and Regional Matters to prepare legal instruments to facilitate transfrontier cooperation, particularly in the field of regional planning ;

e. make final provision as from 1975, either in the Council of Europe general budget or in a subsidiary budget, for the implementation of operational regional planning schemes, and in particular for the production of a genuine European regional planning terminology and cartographic system ;

B. As regards future conferences

a. accept the Italian Government's invitation to hold the 3rd ministerial conference in Italy in 1975 or 1976 ;

b. provide additional material aid for the preparation and organisation of the next conference and for its Committee of Senior Officials, especially by expanding the conference's secretariat commensurately with the relevance of its work to the achievement of the aims of the Council of Europe ;

c. facilitate cooperation between the parliamentary organ of the Council of Europe and the various Conferences of specialised Ministers, both while the latter are being prepared and while they are in progress, and bear in mind that colloquies between Ministers and parliamentarians seem to be the best means of conducting a dialogue between the two sides ;

C. As regards national administrative structures

request each government to review its administrative structures in the light of the need for close coordination of national policies in the fields of regional planning and environmental protection, having regard for this purpose to the measures already taken by several member states in this connection.