Resolution No. 2 on The work and role of the conference
Part I: The work of the conference and the committee
The ministers,
A. Having considered the interim report
presented to the conference by the Committee of Senior Officials covering the intersessional work of the committee and its working parties,
Welcoming the further development of technical co-operation within the conference, and within the Council of Europe’s Work Programme on Regional Planning,
Convinced that the importance of regional planning in Europe merits further development of such activities,
Considering that the conference represents the most appropriate forum for an increasingly wide geographical scale of co-operation in such planning matters,
Acclaiming the inclusion into the Council of Europe’s Activity Programme on Regional Planning of a certain number of proposals made by the conference,
Adopt the following resolution addressed to the competent bodies of the Council of Europe, to their own Committee of Senior Officials, and to the international intergovernmental organisations working in this field.
B. Instruct their Committee of Senior Officials:
I.To prepare the 5th Conference
The ministers accept with gratitude the invitation of the British minister to hold the fifth session of the conference in the United Kingdom in 1980 and accordingly instruct the Committee of Senior Officials to make the necessary arrangements to prepare the conference.
– The ministers request that an analysis of the results of the work of the conference over the ten years of its existence should be undertaken in order to permit orientation of their future work. In the light of this analysis, they will discuss a first draft of a European Regional Planning Charter.
– The ministers decide that the 5th Conference should be the occasion for the launch and discussion of the Council of Europe campaign on urban renewal.
II.To continue political and technical co-operation
The ministers express their gratitude to the Committee of Senior Officials and its subordinate groups for the work accomplished in the two years since the Bari Conference and ask that this political and technical co-operation should be continued and further developed.
Such work should be carried out by the committee on the following subjects, along the lines drawn up in the activity report of the committee, as presented to the conference.
i.Long-range forecasting
The ministers note with satisfaction the results of the seminar, organised in November 1977 by the committee’s Group of Experts on Long-Range Forecasting, on Territorial planning and long-range forecasting. The ministers note the proposals made at the seminar for future work and they accordingly instruct the Committee of Experts on Long-Range Forecasting to submit to the Committee of Senior Officials a future programme of work in this field for 1979 and beyond, taking into account the proposals made at the seminar and those made already by delegations to the committee.
The Committee of Senior Officials is asked to draw up terms of reference for its group of experts, ensuring that its work is orientated for the most part to the needs and themes of the ministerial conference.
ii.Cartography, statistics, terminology
The ministers recall the need to develop an appropriate system of working instruments for regional planning, particularly those for cartography, statistics and terminology, and they note with satisfaction that the first set of harmonised thematic maps are being used for the present conference.
They note that an exchange of information and experience within these subjects has been developed between European countries, through a number of technical meetings and a series of specific seminars, and express the wish that this exchange of information should continue.
They express their appreciation to the French authorities for having organised the 2nd European Seminar within this series, held in Toulouse in 1977 on the subject of regional planning and remote-sensing.
They accept with gratitude the invitation of the Spanish Government to organise the next seminar, on “Regional planning and information systems”.
The Committee of Senior Officials is asked to renew the terms of reference of the Expert Committee on Cartography, Statistics, Terminology in such a way that this important work will continue.
iii.Transport and regional planning
The ministers record their satisfaction with the work on transport and regional planning undertaken by the Committee of Senior Officials and in particular the organisation of a joint seminar with the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) held in November 1977 following the request made by the ministers at the Bari Conference (Resolution No. 5).
Noting the proposals made at this seminar for future work, the ministers accordingly instruct the Committee of Senior Officials and its Working Party on Transport,
– to continue the close co-operation with the ECMT and to explore the possibility of holding a second seminar in the joint series;
– to study and pursue the most appropriate methods for the better integration of the principles of regional planning into transport policy in Europe.
iv.Frontier regions
The ministers underline the importance they attach to the co-ordination of regional planning in frontier regions, particularly between regional and local authorities.
They note the progress made in recent years in transfrontier co-operation and they express their firm interest in the European Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation, which they hope will soon be approved by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
They accordingly instruct the Committee of Senior Officials to follow closely and associate itself with the development of transfrontier co-operation in Europe.
v.Mountain regions
The ministers recall the resolution at Bari concerning urbanisation and mountain regions, and particularly that part of it dealing with the organisation of a European seminar on development problems in mountain regions.
They note with satisfaction the results of the seminar on this subject organised in Grindelwald by the Swiss and Austrian authorities and express their gratitude to those authorities for having co-operated in an exemplary fashion in this exercise.
vi.Rural regions
The ministers draw attention to Resolution No. 1 of the conference, which represents a concerted ministerial view on the problems and strategies for rural regions in Europe, and instruct the Committee of Senior Officials to explore the most appropriate manner in which to follow up this work.
vii.Urban problems
The ministers recall the work done at the Bari Conference on urbanisation and express their interest in the continued study of urban issues by the Committee of Senior Officials, and in particular request the committee to co-operate with and give every assistance to the Council of Europe and the appropriate intergovernmental committee in the organisation, conduct and exploitation of the Council of Europe campaign on urban renewal.
viii.The planning of coastal regions
The ministers expressed their gratitude at the proposal of the Italian delegation to the Committee of Senior Officials to organise a seminar in 1979 in Italy on the planning of coastal regions and they note that such a proposal reflects the growing interest in and concern, within the committee and elsewhere, for the problems of planning for coastal regions in Europe. The ministers request the Committee of Senior Officials to consider in the light of the seminar to be held in Italy, the most appropriate way of further developing work on the subject.
III.To study the possibilities
of achieving for the conference appropriate budgetary and secretariat provision and to present the results of this study at the fifth session.
C. Invite the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe to recommend to the Steering Committee for Regional Planning and Architectural Heritage (CDAT):
a. to continue and further develop its technical work in regional and urban planning in co-operation with the Committee of Senior Officials and its working parties, in the following fields:
i. the objectives of European regional planning,
ii. urban issues,
iii. transport and regional planning,
iv. mountain regions,
vi. cartography, statistics and terminology,
vii. long-range forecasting,
viii. the planning of coastal regions, and
ix. rural regions.
b. to continue the study series on European regional planning in co-operation with the Committee of Senior Officials; to examine the results achieved so far; and to define selective criteria to enable the studies to be geared to the objectives of the conference.
The ministers invite the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe:
Concerning the Ministerial Conference for Regional Planning
– to assure the preparation of their periodic sessions and the continuation of the permanent technical co-operation of the conference and its Committee of Senior Officials,
– to strengthen the secretariat and budgetary support of the conference, thus underlining its special political and technical role.
Concerning intergovernmental work
– to find an arrangement whereby the Committee of Senior Officials would act as the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Regional Planning with responsibility for the initiation, guidance and execution of Sector 17 of the Council of Europe’s work programme;
– to consult the Committee of Senior Officials before undertaking any future reform related to the structures of the committees of the Council of Europe concerned with regional planning, given the close interaction between the activities of the conference and those of the CDAT.
– to give political and administrative support to the programme on rural regions to be organised as part of the Council of Europe’s activities in the period 1979-80;
– to increase the funds available for carrying out the work programme of the Council of Europe on regional planning matters;
– to take into consideration the results of the work already done, and to be done, on subjects proposed above when drawing up the second medium-term plan, 1981-85.
Part II: Relations of the conference
A. With the Council of Europe
i.With the Committee of Ministers
The ministers express their gratitude to the Council of Europe for having provided the secretariat of the conference and for the preparatory Committee of Senior Officials and its working parties, and welcome the continuation of the relationship between the conference and the Council of Europe, as governed by Resolution (71) 44 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and the fact that this resolution maintains a strong link between the conference and the Council of Europe while maintaining the necessary margin of independence.
The ministers draw attention to those subjects mentioned above in [Part I] paragraphs B(II), i-viii, which have been incorporated in one way or another into the Council of Europe’s work programme, and express the hope that such collaboration will continue in the future.
ii.With the Parliamentary Assembly
The ministers thank the Parliamentary Assembly for its interest shown since the beginning in the development of the conference and its technical co-operation. They are grateful to the Parliamentary Assembly for its support that it has always given.
The ministers express the hope that this co-operation continues and welcome the project of a joint meeting between the Committee of Senior Officials and the Assembly’s Committee for Regional Planning and Local Authorities.
iii.With the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe
The ministers express the desire that their Committee of Senior Officials follow closely the work of the CLRAE, particularly its analysis of European regional policies and the balanced development of European regions.
iv.The European Ministerial Conference on the Environment
The ministers note the preparatory work being done for the next session of the European Ministerial Conference on the Environment, due to be held in Bern, Switzerland, from 19 to 21 September 1979, and requests the Committee of Senior Officials to consider, with the preparatory Committee of Senior Officials of the Environmental Ministerial Conference, the most appropriate way of promoting co-operation between the two respective committees.
v.The Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local Government
Given the interest in the subject of public participation as evinced by the ministers at the Bari Conference, the ministers request the Committee of Senior Officials to examine the results of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local Government, held in Stockholm in September 1978, on the theme of citizen participation and local government.
B. With other organisations
i.With the Commission of the European Community
The ministers applaud the close co-operation that has been established between the conference and the Commission of the European Community, as expressed by the regular participation of members of the Commission secretariat in the preparatory work for each conference and by the regular presence of the member of the Commission responsible for regional policy at sessions of the conference.
In particular, the ministers recognise with gratitude the financial contribution made by the Commission of the European Community to the Seminar on “Territorial planning and long-range forecasting” held in Strasbourg in November 1977.
This co-operation between the conference and the Commission of the Community should be further developed in the spirit of Resolution (71) 44 of the Council of Europe. In addition they express the wish that a closer link be established between the Committee of Senior Officials and the Committee for Regional Policy, with a view to proceeding jointly on a detailed analysis of the problems of balanced regional development in Europe.
ii.With the European Conference of Ministers of Transport
The ministers applaud the close co-operation that has been established with the ECMT in order to bring together transport policy and regional planning.
In particular, they express their satisfaction at the organisation of a joint seminar and trust that other seminars will be organised in order to draw up a common approach to transport and regional planning policies.
iii.With the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The ministers welcome the close co-operation that has developed with the OECD and particularly with the Regional Policy Working Party of the Industry Committee and the Sector Group on the Urban Environment of the Environment Committee.
The ministers request that such co-operation be continued.
iv.With the UN Economic Commission for Europe
The ministers applaud the co-operation that has developed with the UN Economic Commission for Europe and particularly with its Committee on Housing, Building and Planning, and its working parties.
In addition, the ministers welcome the fruitful co-operation between the conference and the Conference of European Statisticians in the field of harmonisation of regional statistics. The ministers trust that such co-operation will continue and be further developed in the future.
The ministers take note with gratitude of the invitation of the Turkish and Spanish governments to act as hosts for forthcoming sessions of the conference.