Relations between the Council of Europe and the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies

Recommendation 669 (1972)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 26 January 1972 (25th Sitting) (see Doc. 3091, report of the Committee on Agriculture). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 January 1972 (25th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Recalling its Recommendation 637, adopted on 27 January 1971, in which it advocated that the number of scholarships with which the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies was endowed by the Council of Europe should be increased, and that States not parties to the Agreement of 21 May 1962 should associate themselves with the activities of the Centre ;

2. Having expressed satisfaction at the reply of the Committee of Ministers to the said recommendation, as contained in the Statutory Report of September 1971 (Doc. 2995) according to which the Committee of Ministers :

"wished to assure the Assembly of its continuing support for the Centre . . . ",

hoped "that non-Mediterranean States would be increasingly associated with the Centre",

would give consideration to "an increase in the number of scholarships . . . when examining the 1972 Budget of the Council of Europe" ;

3. Expressing particular pleasure at the decision taken by the Swiss authorities in July 1971 to give the Centre two scholarships in 1972 ;

4. Notified by its Committee on Agriculture (Doc. 3091) that, as a result of cuts made by the Committee of Ministers, the 1972 Budget would not include appropriations allocated to the Centre by the Council of Europe to finance five scholarships ;

5. Considering that such a measure would be in clear contradiction, not only with the Assembly's position, as set out in Recommendation 637, and with the above-mentioned reply by the Committee of Ministers, but also with the assurances given during the past year by the Council of Europe to the Secretary General of the Centre ;

6. Deeply perturbed by the financial and psychological consequences of such a step on the Centre's activities and on its relations with the Council of Europe,

7. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a vote further appropriations in order to restore, in the 1972 Budget, the appropriations serving to finance the five scholarships granted hitherto by the Council of Europe to the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies ;

b decide now, in accordance with the statements contained in the Statutory Report (Doc. 2995) addressed to the Assembly in September 1971, to increase the number of scholarships to be granted to the Centre in 1973 ;

c inform the Secretary General of the Centre immediately of these decisions so as to prevent any slowing down of activity, and assure him of the Committee of Ministers' and the Assembly's "continuing support for the Centre".