1. The Committee of Ministers notes that
it recently received Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2036
(2014) on the “Revision of the European Convention on Transfrontier
Television” recommending it to resume work on the revision of the
convention. The Committee decided, at its meeting on 12 and 13 February 2014,
to transmit this recommendation to the Steering Committee on Media
and Information Society (CDMSI) for information and possible comments.
For this reason, it will reply to this part of the Honourable Parliamentarian’s
question in the context of its reply to the above-mentioned recommendation.
2. The Committee of Ministers sees no need to ask the CAHDI to
provide an opinion in general on the power of the Contracting Parties
to a Council of Europe convention to revise it, as the procedure
for revising Council of Europe treaties is usually provided for
in each separate treaty. The European Convention on Transfrontier
Television sets out a clear and explicit procedure for revision.
According to Article 21, paragraph 1.b of the convention, it is
possible for the Contracting Parties – represented on the Standing
Committee – to initiate a review process of the convention on their
own initiative and without prior authorisation of the Committee
of Ministers. This article reflects a general rule of public international
law contained in Article 39 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the
Law of Treaties, which provides that “a treaty may be amended by agreement
between the Parties”. This being so, with respect to the European
Convention on Transfrontier Television, any action taken in this
regard shall follow the procedure set out in its Article 23, which
provides that any amendments proposed and adopted by a majority
of three-quarters of the members of the Standing Committee shall
be submitted to the Committee of Ministers for approval. Likewise,
any protocol to the convention will have to be adopted and opened
for signature by the Committee of Ministers.
