Situation of European co-operation in the fields of culture and education

Recommendation 717 (1973)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 28 September 1973 (14th Sitting) (see Doc. 3340, report of the Committee on Culture and Education). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28 September 1973 (14th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having regard to the 1972 annual report of the Council for Cultural Cooperation (CCC) (Doc. 3320) ;

2. Recalling its Recommendations 567 (1969) and 649 (1971) on the intensification of European cooperation in the field of culture and education ;

3. Noting that the Committee of Ministers has itself recognised the need for intensification of such cooperation, stating in its interim reply to Recommendation 567 (1969) that it "relied on the CCC to meet the clearly increasing requirements for educational and cultural cooperation in Europe'' ;

4. Whereas the CCC accordingly put forward, in its Opinion No. 10 (seeDoc. 3320), a number of practical measures for translating the Assembly proposals into programme terms and for enabling the CCC gradually to assume the functions of a European Office of Education ;

5. Considering that the really very modest proposals put forward by the CCC in Opinion No. 10 provide a basis on which it should be possible to give fresh impetus to European cooperation in the relevant sphere and to raise it by stages to a level commensurate with the requirements acknowledged by both the organs of the Council of Europe ;

6. Believing that the CCC's proposals represent a minimum below which there would be no point in trying to establish an embryonic "European Office of Education" or "focus" for intensified cooperation, and that below this threshold any action undertaken by the Council of Europe in the field in question would be uneconomic ;

7. Convinced that this issue is first and foremost a political problem, the solution of which is crucial to the future of European cooperation among the States Parties to the European Cultural Convention ;

8. Reiterating its conviction that the system of European cooperation established by the Council of Europe in the cultural and educational field is sufficiently flexible, provided that the necessary resources are made available, for implementing special or intensified cooperation projects involving all or some of the States Parties to the European Cultural Convention, and hence for pursuing also certain objectives of the "Nine" in the field of education, which are not always prompted by strictly economic considerations ;

9. Considering it most regrettable that, at a time when it is more urgent than ever to put into effect the Committee of Ministers' own declared intention to intensify European cooperation in culture and education, the absence of a decision concerning the amount of the 1974 financial guarantee to the Cultural Fund places the CCC in an unprecedented situation whereby it is obliged to postpone from September until December the autumn session at which it normally adopts its programme-budget ;

10. Recalling that it is statutorily associated with the work of the CCC and therefore shares responsibility for it ;

11. Considering that the precarious situation of the CCC cannot be allowed to continue without damaging the Organisation's credibility,

12. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a draw the attention of governments to the imperative and urgent necessity of providing the Council of Europe with the resources it needs in order, in accordance with its statutory obligations, its natural vocation and the repeated assertions of the Committee of Ministers itself, to pursue its activities in the field of culture and education, taking the proposals set forth in Opinion No. 10 of the Council for Cultural Cooperation as a minimum initial basis ;

b accordingly allocate appropriate financial resources to the CCC in the Council of Europe's programme-budget for 1974 ;

c bear in mind that, failing sufficiently concrete results along the lines of Recommendations 567 (1969) and 649 (1971), and of Opinion No. 10 of the CCC, the Assembly will no longer be able to give its political and moral backing to intergovernmental activities in the field of culture and education for which, in the last resort, the Committee of Ministers bears the responsibility.