4.1 actively support
the work of the Inter-Secretariat Task Force on the Environment
established following the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government
of the Council of Europe, and carefully consider its proposals when
drawing up a strategy and an action plan;
4.2 give utmost priority to the creation of an ad hoc intergovernmental
committee, as envisaged in Reykjavik, to organise, co-ordinate and
steer the implementation of the strategy and the action plan;
4.3 devote the normative part of the strategy to the formal
recognition of the right to a healthy environment at the level of
the Council of Europe, by drafting a binding legal instrument as
soon as possible;
4.4 in so doing, focus on the rapid implementation of
Recommendation 2211 (2021),
including devising an autonomous, specific and inclusive instrument
covering substantive rights and procedural matters relating to the
environment that capitalises fully on the standards which have already
been drawn up;
4.5 ensure that the draft convention superseding and replacing
the Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal
Law (ETS No. 172), currently being prepared within the Council of Europe,
incorporates the notion of ecocide as a criminal offence and establishes
an effective monitoring mechanism;
4.6 give the ad hoc intergovernmental committee a multidisciplinary
role, enabling it to act as an interface between the Council of
Europe and civil society in its broadest sense, and to carry out
activities aimed at environmental monitoring and governance as soon
as it has been set up;
4.7 highlight the committee’s added value in dealings with
the Organisation’s other bodies with which effective and focused
partnerships may be established, to drive forward change in environmental monitoring
and governance;
4.8 set up a rapporteur group on environmental affairs at
Committee of Ministers level to ensure unity and co-ordination in
decision making.
