Draft Intergovernmental Work Programme of the Council of Europe for 1973-1974

Opinion 61 (1972)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Doc. 3168Assembly debate on 23 October 1972 (16th Sitting) (see , report of the Special Committee on the Intergovernmental Work Programme). Text adopted by the Assembly on 23 October 1972 (16th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having been asked for an opinion on the draft Intergovernmental Work Programme of the Council of Europe for 1973 and 1974 (Doc. 3120) ;

2. Having regard to the report of the Special Committee on the Work Programme (Doc. 3168),

3. Expresses its satisfaction with the improvements in the procedure, adopted in agreement with the Committee of Ministers in 1970, to the effect that the Assembly is consulted on the drafts of future work programmes and kept informed of the state of application of current work programmes - this having already enabled it to study the interim report on the Programme for 1971-72 (Doc. 3105) ;

4. 3451

5. Considers that the procedure for preparing the Work Programme and consulting the Assembly could be improved still further, if the Committee of Ministers would agree to :

a include budgetary particulars in the draft Work Programme, specifying the cost of each activity contained therein, since it is otherwise impossible for the Assembly to give a carefully considered opinion on priorities ;

b add a policy-orientated introduction to the Work Programme setting forth the main options of the Council of Europe's action over a period of five years, within which the biennial programmes should be conceived, established and carried out, thus making possible the constant re-evaluation and adaptation of the Organisation's policy, the Assembly being closely associated with this exercise through annual reports by the Committee of Ministers ;

c introduce a system of budget programming for all the institutional and operational activities, by the simultaneous adoption of the programme of activities and the administrative and financial resources required to carry them out, which the Committee of Ministers seems to be contemplating already ;

d consider the desirability of including in the Work Programme all the intergovernmental activities of the Council of Europe, including the work of specialist ministerial conferences and partial agreements ;

6. Taking note of the recent statements by the Committee of Ministers and by several Ministers of Foreign Affairs, affirming the importance of the future of the Council of Europe and the role it will be called upon to play in the completely new situation created in Europe by the enlargement of the Communities, and considering that the Intergovernmental Work Programme is one of the foundations of its activity, expresses the opinion :

a that this is not the moment to compromise the effectiveness of that activity on the pretext of awaiting the full repercussions of the enlargement of the Communities, since this would mean that for a not inconsiderable period the Council of Europe would be subjected to creeping paralysis ;

b that the Work Programme could be given added impetus if governments were prepared to join with the Assembly in fixing certain clear priority objectives and to reallocate funds accordingly within the Programme as a whole ;

c that adequate financial and administrative resources must be furnished to carry out, in 1973 and 1974, a Work Programme which should on no account be smaller than the draft on which the Assembly has been asked to comment ;

d that the political and financial effectiveness of the Council of Europe Work Programme could be improved by better coordination with the other European organisations and agencies, as recommended by the Assembly in its Opinion No. 54 (1970) on the 1971-1972 Work Programme ;

7. Subject to the foregoing general considerations, endorses to the full the conclusions of its Committees on Economic Affairs and Development, Social and Health Questions, Legal Affairs, Science and Technology, Regional Planning and Local Authorities, Agriculture, and Population and Refugees, appended to the report of its Special Committee on the Work Programme, Doc. 3168 ;

8. In so far as culture and education is concerned, refers to its Recommendations 680 (1972) and 681 (1972) on cultural policies in Europe and on European co-operation in the field of monuments and sites.