Results of the 2nd European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (La Grande-Motte, 25-27 September 1973)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 22 January 1974 (21st Sitting) (see Doc. 3378, report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1974 (21st Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having regard to the report by its Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities concerning the second Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (
Doc. 3378) ;
2. Congratulating this conference on the results achieved thanks to the careful preparations by the Committee of Senior Officials ;
3. Expressing its satisfaction that the conference took up many of its own proposals and welcoming the fruitful cooperation with the conference, which came into being as a result of particular insistence by the parliamentary organ of the Council of Europe ;
4. Convinced, however, that this form of cooperation ought to be intensified and made even more effective for the purpose of drawing up a European regional planning policy, for example through consultation of members, particularly Rapporteurs, of the appropriate Assembly committees during preparatory work by the Committee of Senior Officials, and through a fuller dialogue between Ministers and parliamentarians for the purpose of defining the main political principles of regional planning ;
5. Recalling in this respect the good example of the opportunity of an exchange of information and views which was set by the colloquy between the Ministers and an Assembly delegation during the European Ministerial Conference on the Environment, held in Vienna in March 1973 ;
6. Convinced of the need to increase the political substance and character of the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning, for example by beginning its working sessions with a general discussion on the results of national regional planning policies and the lessons to be drawn from them ;
7. Believing that the number of topics dealt with at any one conference should be limited, in the interests of a proper debate, and that it should be considered holding such conferences every two years in order to ensure greater continuity,
8. Welcomes, as regards the subjects dealt with by the conference, the fact that the Ministers defined the concept and aims of a European regional planning policy, deliberately giving priority to human considerations ;
9. Notes with satisfaction the decision to include in the programme for the third Ministerial Conference the question of the role and problems of mountain regions in the context of European regional planning, and expresses the hope that its own current work in this field will contribute to the study of the question ;
10. Further welcomes the Ministers' intention to consider the problem of urbanisation in Europe, while suggesting that the problem be examined with special reference to the distribution of urban areas in Europe, interdependence between towns and conurbations, land policy, planning instruments and participation by citizens in the planning process ;
11. Hopes, in accordance with its previous work and proposals, that the question of a master plan for a European network of major communication routes, based on regional planning principles, will be kept on the agenda of the conference and be studied further in cooperation with the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT).
