Council of Europe activities on nature conservation and the protection of amenities

Recommendation 586 (1970)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 26 January 1970 (20thSitting) (see Doc. 2704, report of theCommittee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 January 1970(20thSitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having noted thereport of its Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities relating tothe activities of the Council of Europe on nature conservation and theprotection of amenities ;

2. Recalling that the problems of man'snatural environment have for ten years constituted one of its majorpreoccupations ;

3. Recalling in particular :

• its Recommendation 284 (1961) concerning theestablishment within the Council of Europe of a permanent system of cooperationin matters concerning the protection of nature in Europe ;
• its Recommendation 290 (1961) relating to air pollution and, inparticular, recommending the convening of a European conference on airpollution ;
• its Recommendation 436 (1965) on fresh waterpollution control in Europe, and also its Recommendation 555 (1969) relating toa draft European Convention on this subject ;
• itsRecommendation 341 (1963) on the anti-noise campaign ;
• itsRecommendation 538 (1968) on aircraft noise abatement ;
• itsRecommendation 543 (1969) relating to the use of pesticides in agriculture;
• its Recommendation 562 (1969) on the administration ofenvironmental health systems ;

4. Recognising withsatisfaction that the Committee of Ministers has on the whole shown itself tobe aware of the role that the Council of Europe was called upon to play inthese various fields of activity ;

5. Noting, however, that theresults obtained have not fulfilled the wishes of the Assembly and are notsufficient to meet the gravity of the threats which are increasingly facing thenatural environment of industrialised societies ;

6. Noting thathenceforth the problems of the natural environment should be approached in aglobal context, and that it is consequently necessary to re-think theactivities undertaken up to now in a to some extent isolated way by a number oforgans of the Council of Europe ;

7. Noting furthermore that numerousinternational organisations have included in their work programmes researchactivities relating to the various aspects of the environment ;

8. Noting, in particular, the recent formation under the North AtlanticTreaty Organisation (NATO) of a "Committee on the Challenges to ModernSociety", and the invitations issued to nine non-member countries by theCouncil of the European Communities of the Six to participate in certainresearch programmes concerning threats to the environment ;

9. Noting,consequently, that the need for international action in these fields is feltwith increasing urgency at all levels, and that the Council of Europe'sactivity over nearly ten years is likely to be duplicated by the activity ofother European or international organisations ;

10. Recalling, in thisregard, Opinion No. 51 (1969) of the Assembly on the Intergovernmental WorkProgramme (paragraphs 13 and 14) stressing the need for the rationalisation andprogramming of intergovernmental activities at the European level,

11. Reaffirms strongly that the Council of Europe constitutes the mostappropriate framework for the successful conduct of European action for theprotection of man's natural milieu ;

12. Recalls, to this effect, thegeneral duty of the Council of Europe and the four spheres of priority actionascribed to it by the Committee of Ministers in its reply to Recommendation516, of which two at least are directly concerned with environmental problems :

• the planning of regions and of man'ssurroundings in his urban and rural communities, and
• thedevelopment of social institutions and the improvement of public healthconditions ;

13. Recalls further that the conditionsfor coherent global action already exist in the Council of Europe whichcomprises on the one hand the Consultative Assembly and the European Conferenceof Local Authorities assuring the representation of the populations involved,and on the other hand numerous committees of experts qualified to examine thevarious aspects of the environment and its protection ;

14. Stressesalso that the Council of Europe offers a most appropriate platform for linkingconcern for the protection of the natural environment with regional planningpolicy, this link being taken today to be a pre-condition for the success ofany coherent action for the protection of the natural environment ;

15. Recalls, finally, that the Committee of Ministers, in its reply toRecommendation 516, repeated that "it is making every endeavour - and willcontinue to do so - to ensure that the Council, in agreement with the othermajor international organisations, plays its full role as a 'regional agencyfor the peaceful development of European society' " ;

16. Recommendsthat the Committee of Ministers :

a draw theattention of member governments to recent action taken by other internationalorganisations in the field of environment protection, to the consequent risk ofduplication, and to the advisability of organising a combined effort to achievea better distribution of work among international organisations in accordancewith the particular competency of each ;

b set up as soon aspossible an ad hoc working party consisting on the one hand of expertsqualified in the various field of environmental studies, whose names would besubmitted by the Secretary General, and who would be assisted byrepresentatives of the various committees of the Council of Europe particularlyconcerned with nature conservation, air pollution, water pollution and publichealth, and on the other hand of three or four representatives of the Assembly;

c request this working party to submit concrete proposalson the most effective way of developing and promoting within the framework ofthe Council of Europe a coherent and co-ordinated policy on nature conservationand the protection of amenities, in conformity with the aims contained in ageneral and systematic policy for European regional planning, and to achieveits execution on a European as well as national level, in order to take fulladvantage of the terms of reference of the Council of Europe and to ensure thatits powers are not diminished in relation to those of other internationalorganisations ;

d ask this working party, in formulating itsproposals, to take into account :

16.4.1 thepresent recommendation and the accompanying report of the Assembly, and therecommendations and resolutions adopted in recent years by the ConsultativeAssembly and the European Conference of Local Authorities in this field;

16.4.2 the resolutions adopted by the Committee of Ministers;

16.4.3 the draft recommendations or resolutions submitted to theCommittee of Ministers by the various committees of experts ;

16.4.4 the deliberations of the European Nature Conservation Conference;

16.4.5 the work of other international organisations ; and,generally, to take into account the need to prepare the way for coherent andeffective action in the European context, operating at the same time at thepolitical, technical, legal and administrative levels, and also on publicopinion, in order to ensure for the peoples of Europe an environment whichrespects the natural surroundings and thus contributes to the full developmentof the human personality ;

e submit theproposals of the working party to the Consultative Assembly for itsopinion.