European environment policy (1994-95)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 23 January 1996 (3rd Sitting) (see Doc. 7441, report of the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities, rapporteur: Mrs Robert). Text adopted by the Assembly on 23 January 1996 (3rd Sitting).
- Thesaurus
1. The Parliamentary Assembly has always taken a close interest in the pan-European ministerial conferences held since 1991 as part of the "Environment for Europe" initiative, the most recent of which was held in Sofia from 23 to 25 October 1995.
2. Unfortunately, it regrets that each time tangible results fell short of the declarations made and the expectations raised.
3. Moreover, the serious and sometimes critical state of our environment requires that all concerned - decision-makers, business and industry, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and citizens - help give practical effect to political commitments made by governments.
4. Among institutions concerned, the European parliamentary assemblies and national parliaments have a fundamental role to play to promote the necessary mechanisms, including appropriate changes in legislation and existing bodies.
5. To this end, the Assembly welcomes the good co-operation established with the European Parliament when their respectively competent committees prepared reports for the 3rd Pan-European Conference of Ministers of the Environment.
6. In the same context, it believes that increased co-operation between the Assembly and national parliaments could lead to a greater participation on the part of their governments in the "Environment for Europe" initiative.
7. Furthermore, it welcomes the interparliamentary conference on "An Environment for Europe", which was held in Strasbourg on 8 and 9 June 1995, in preparation for the ministerial conference in Sofia and which provided representatives of the national parliaments present with the opportunity to work together to determine what action should be undertaken in national parliaments.
8. Therefore, the Assembly:
8.1 intends to develop co-operation with national parliaments in the environmental field, in particular by organising a second interparliamentary conference on the subject, in order to assess the results of the Sofia Conference and to define work which could be undertaken at a parliamentary level to help implement the ministers' recommendations;
8.2 considers that it is important to pursue and intensify co-operation with the European Parliament in this area in order to co-ordinate activities and increase effectiveness;
8.3 in the same spirit, wishes to intensify its relations with other assemblies, such as the Interparliamentary Union and the Parliamentary Assembly for Black Sea Economic Co-operation;
8.4 believes that it is useful for national parliaments, and for the Assembly, to establish fruitful relations with non-governmental organisations working in the environment field in developing a genuine forum for debate between parliaments and NGOs.
