Future of European co-operation: first report of the Commission of Eminent European Personalities (Colombo Commission) (General policy of the Council of Europe)

Recommendation 1017 (1985)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 27 September 1985 (12th and 13th Sittings) (see Doc. 5455, report of the Political Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 27 September 1985 (13th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Recalling the positions it adopted in the past, particularly Resolution 805 (1983), on European co-operation in the 1980s, and Recommendation 994 (1984), calling for the constitution of, and laying down terms of reference for, a Commission of Eminent European Personalities, under the chairmanship of Mr Emilio Colombo ;

2. Welcoming the support of the Committee of Ministers for this project, after it had been closely associated with its evolution, notably through discussion in the Joint Committee in Oslo (July 1984) and Strasbourg (November 1984) ;

3. Welcoming the spirit in which the Committee of Ministers associated the Assembly in the deliberations which led to the adoption, at the 75th and 76th Sessions of the Committee of Ministers (21 November 1984 and 25 April 1985 respectively), of Resolution (84) 21 on the Council of Europe action in the political field, and Resolution (85) 5, on co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Community ;

4. Recalling its Recommendations 850 (1979), 940 (1982) and 995 (1984) on European cultural co-operation ;

5. Strongly supporting the mandate given to the Secretary General in Resolution (85) 5 "to initiate contacts with the competent bodies of the European Community for the purpose of elaborating with them proposals designed to strengthen co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Community ... and to report back", and welcoming the first meeting in Brussels on 25 July 1985 of a "high-level contact group" between the Council of Europe Secretariat and the Commission of the European Communities ;

6. Noting the results of the last meeting of the European Council (Milan, 28-29 June 1985), particularly the support given to the French project Eureka for creating a technological Europe, open to non-Community countries, its approval of numerous concrete proposals concerning, inter alia, citizens' rights, culture, youth, education and sport (presented by the Adonnino Committee on a People's Europe), and its majority decision to call a conference to amend the Treaty of Rome (as proposed by the Dooge Committee on institutional matters) ;

7. Calling for the establishment of a valid and reciprocal basis for an institutional relationship between the Council of Europe and the European Community in the cultural field ;

8. Expressing its support for the many useful proposals presented by the Commission of Eminent European Personalities (Colombo Commission), namely that the Council of Europe and the European Community should intensify co-operation concerning political dialogue, parliamentary democracy, safeguarding human rights, problems of present-day society (particularly drug abuse, terrorism and the consequences of long-term unemployment among youth), cultural identity, migration, education and training, research, science and technology, and harmonisation of law ;

9. Noting the Colombo Commission's opinion that the participation by the Community as such in the work of the Council of Europe would constitute an essential step forward in European co-operation ;

10. Hoping, moreover, that the work of the Colombo Commission could be extended to include family problems in the context of changing social structures,

11. Shares the priority given by the Colombo Commission to political dialogue which should promote the reinforcement of co-operation between the parliamentary democracies of Europe and affirm Europe's place in the world, and to this end supports the proposals aimed at establishing regular links between the European political co-operation of the Ten/Twelve and political dialogue among the Twenty-one ;

12. Asks to be more closely associated with political co-operation and to this end expresses the hope that the Committee of Ministers will support the proposal of the Colombo Commission on the presentation to the Assembly of the results of political dialogue at intergovernmental level ;

13. Approves the proposal to organise, as a contribution to political dialogue, annual debates on the political aspects and progress of European construction with a report by the Secretary General and in association with the Committee of Ministers ;

14. Repeats the request made in its Recommendation 1000 (1984) for the creation of a European civil service, and invites the Committee of Ministers to continue to take care that the gap between Community officials and those of the Council of Europe does not increase ;

15. Stresses that the shared attachment of the Community and the Council of Europe to respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms should be based upon a single text, and considers that the time has now come, after the expressions of agreement by the Commission of the Communities, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly, for the political decision to be taken for the Community to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights ;

16. Urges the governments of all the member states which have not yet done so to accept the optional clauses of the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 25, on the right of individual petition, and Article 46, on the jurisdiction of the Court), and to sign and ratify all its additional protocols, in particular Protocol No. 8 ;

17. Supports the proposal that the Community accede to the legal instruments of the Council of Europe (in particular the Social Charter and the European Cultural Convention), as well as the extension to the Twenty-one of the Community standards and directives for which this is appropriate ;

18. Attaches particular importance to the mobility of students and researchers and, in this context, hopes that all measures likely to facilitate such mobility will be implemented, and to this end recommends that the Committee of Ministers instruct the Standing Conference on University Problems to make practical proposals as soon as possible ;

19. Shares the concern that creative artists should be involved in European cultural co-operation, and accordingly proposes that a meeting of creative and other artists of the member countries be organised in 1986 ;

20. Calls for greater co-operation between all the member states in combating terrorism, in particular through ratification of the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism ;

21. Asks that, in order to achieve greater efficiency, efforts to control drug trafficking and prevent addiction be co-ordinated, in particular through the accession of all member states and the European Community to the Pompidou Group ;

22. Similarly supporting the proposals, under the heading "Means of co-operation", especially that national budgetary contributions, adequate to the tasks agreed upon, to organisations for co-operation between European democratic states be kept distinct from contributions to other international organisations, and that the work of the conferences of specialised ministers be better integrated into the Work Programme of the Council of Europe ;

23. Looks forward to the second and final report of the Colombo Commission, which should, especially in the light of current moves towards European union, be completed if possible before the end of 1985, and expects that this report will deal with relations with other European organisations, examining, inter alia, the compatibility between the Adonnino proposals on a People's Europe and those of the first Colombo report, and with possibilities of European co-operation across the frontiers between the different economic and political systems ;

24. Calls upon the Committee of Ministers to join with the Assembly in converting its initial favourable reactions to the first Colombo report, expressed at the Joint Committee in Hamburg on 2 July 1985, into action, notably giving the Joint Committee planned for 20 November 1985 an "operational" character making possible the implementation of joint decisions and of as many proposals of the first report as possible, where necessary by their inclusion in the Intergovernmental Work Programme for 1986.