Environmental policy in Europe
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 21 and 22 January 1972 (18th and 19th Sittings) (see Doc. 3080, report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1972 (19th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having taken note of the report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities on environmental policy in Europe (
Doc. 3080), and the specific contribution of the other committees concerned ;
2. Considering that it is a European parliamentary assembly's duty to deal with the major problems affecting society and to promote any move likely to help the community of European peoples along the road indicated in Article 1 of the Statute of the Council of Europe ;
3. Considering in particular that it can provide the foremost platform for debate between governments, the elected representatives of member countries, specialists serving on the Council of Europe's technical committees and other international organisations,
4. Decides :
a to give in the years to come top priority to questions of the protection and improvement of the living environment of the European peoples, in particular by continuing its own reflection and by seeking to promote the co-ordination of all European endeavours in this field ;
b to look for contacts with other parliamentary bodies in order to co-ordinate and intensify action for the improvement of the environment ;
c to endeavour to establish through its committees contacts with the representatives and technical committees of other international organisations, particularly those of OECD, concerned with problems of environment and town planning, for the purpose of exchanging views to gain information and to gain a hearing for its own political preoccupations ;
d to promote in national parliaments the establishment of an information system on these problems, closely linked, in particular, with the European Information Centre on Nature Conservation ;
e to examine every possibility of initiating through parliamentary channels joint and co-ordinated action for the protection of the environment ;
5. Instructs all its committees to keep environment problems on their agenda within the context of their competence, to keep themselves informed, with the help of specialists, of the latest results of research in this field, including those of the United Nations Stockholm Conference, and to confer with a view to reporting to the Assembly as soon as possible, bearing in mind its
Resolution 445 ;
6. Calls on the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education and the Council for Cultural Co-operation to promote in member States a policy aimed at making young people aware of environment problems and, for that purpose, to introduce the appropriate arrangements at all stages of education, including the pre-school stage.
