Follow-up to the Conference "North-South: Europe's role"
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- See Doc. 5424, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 4 July 1985.
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Recalling the Lisbon Declaration, adopted by the parliamentarians from the Council of Europe member states attending the Conference “North-South : Europe's Role”, held in Lisbon from 9 to 11 April 1984, and
Recommendation 992, on this conference ;
2. Noting the Committee of Ministers' reply to this recommendation, in particular their intention to hold further exchanges of views on North-South questions as part of their political dialogue ;
3. Reiterating the importance the Assembly attaches to the organisation of a European public campaign on North-South interdependence and global survival, and welcoming in this connection the support expressed for this project by the Committee of Ministers ;
4. Expressing the hope that the Committee of Ministers will take appropriate measures for the organisation and financing of this campaign, and that the European Community can be associated with its organisation ;
5. Welcoming in this connection the support for the campaign expressed by the Committee on Development and Co-operation of the European Parliament ;
6. Regretting that, at the OECD ministerial meeting held on 11 and 12 April 1985 and the Bonn Summit meeting on 4 May 1985, no real progress has been made towards strengthening international financial and monetary co-operation with a view to alleviating the debt burden of developing countries, and to strengthen the financial capacity of the World Bank and IMF in order to seek a more permanent and comprehensive solution to the present weaknesses in the international financial system ;
8. Underlining the important role the Council of Europe can play as a focal point for international co-operation and to promote a closer coordination of the development policies of European countries, in particular in such fields as education, the transfer of knowledge, population policies, the protection and reconstitution of the natural environment, the development and protection of democracy, law and human rights, as well as the cultural dimension of North-South relations as an essential contribution to the dialogue,
9. Calls on the governments of the Council of Europe member states and of other high-income countries to make further efforts in the realisation of the aims of the Lisbon Declaration ;
10. Urges the Council of Europe member states to follow up
Resolution 838, on the famine in Africa, and to continue or to step up contributions to the Special Facility and Special Action Programme for sub-Saharan Africa of the World Bank and the co-ordinated United Nations emergency operations in this region which is stricken by an unprecedented drought, malnutrition and famine ;
11. Resolves :
11.1 to hold special debates in 1986 : a. on the hunger crisis in Africa, on malnutrition and food shortages elsewhere in the world, and the policies— in particular aid co-ordination—required to eradicate the causes of this situation, and invites its Committees on Economic Affairs and Development and on Agriculture to prepare reports for this purpose ; b. on the increasing debt burden of the non-oil developing countries and development aid policies with regard to these countries ;
11.2 to keep the implementation of the Lisbon Declaration under review, and invites the relevant Assembly committees to report on the proposals in the Declaration falling within their fields of competence, especially those referred to in paragraph 8 of this resolution.
