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Aims
The Council of Europe aims at improving and facilitating
transfrontier co-operation in its member states through:
- confidence-building measures to increase tolerance,
understanding and good-neighbourly relations between
populations;
- provision of legal advice on draft legislation on
cross-border co-operation;
- assistance towards the setting up of transfrontier
co-operation bodies to ensure that transfrontier relations
are sustained and improved.
Activities
The LR-CT (Committee of Experts on Transfrontier
Co-operation) was until December 2007 the Council of Europe
Committee responsible for activities in Transfrontier
Co-operation. Its terms of reference were taken over by the
LR-GI Committee in 2008, and then the LR-IC Committee in
2009.
In its years in service, the LR-CT adopted an approach to
its work, which included information and data collection,
standard setting, dissemination and implementation,
measuring the impact and drawing lessons.
For instance, a survey of the legal framework for
crossborder co-operation in member states led to the
identification of a number of obstacles and difficulties
that local authorities have to overcome in order to engage
in effective crossborder co-operation. This information
enabled the Committee to draw up a “check list” of measures
to be taken by local and central authorities in the field of
crossborder co-operation. This in turn was transformed into
a legal instrument, recommendation Rec(2005)2 of the
Committee of Ministers, for dissemination, translation and
implemention among the member states.
A further example is provided by work carried out in the
framework of the assistance activities programme. The
spreading of transfrontier co-operation bodies (“Euroregions”)
led to increased demands for legal assistance and the clear
identification of the rules applicable at domestic and
international level. This was confirmed by the same survey
that identified good practices and obstacles to crossborder
co-operation. The LR-CT then came to the conclusion that the
drafting of a legal instrument was appropriate and agreed to
examine a new draft convention – firstly a Uniform law and
now, after thorough discussions, a draft third protocol to
the Madrid Outline Convention. The work is reaching
completion.
Finally, assistance activities revealed that the different
languages spoken in the neighbouring countries may be a
serious hindrance to crossborder co-operation. The LR-CT
decided to study this issue, commissioned a report to a
leading specialist, discussed its findings and agreed to
draft a legal instrument which became Recommendation Rec(2005)3
on neighbouring languages in border regions. This
recommendation is available in several languages and its
impact was discussed at an international event held in
Trieste, Italy, in December 2005, with the participation of
experts from Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.
The same assistance activities made it possible for the
Council of Europe to contribute to the identification of
major issues which required the sustained attention of the
international community. Examples include the SWOT analysis
of crossborder co-operation between states in South-eastern
Europe, the case of Kaliningrad, the external border of the
enlarged European Union.
In all these cases, the Council of Europe developed the
appropriate partnerships or let other Organisations play a
constructive role in the management of the issues: the
Stability Pact, the Central European Initiative, the OSCE
and the European Union.
Since 2005, the Council of Europe has concentrated on the
promotion of existing conventions (the MOC and its protocols)
and the development of new standards (draft Third protocol).
In this connection it should be stressed that the LR-CT
innovated insofar as it agreed that informal consultation be
held with experts from the capitals on the new draft
convention, in order to discuss informally and in smaller,
regional compositions, the main features of the draft and
the possible difficulties of member states. This working
method has proved very effective so far.
The LR-CT also took up the work where the Committee of
Ministers had left it after the Chisinau Political
Declaration, calling on SEE states to discuss proposals for
co-operation and possible international agreements between
themselves. This work led to the drafting of two regional
treaties, which were given political support by the Skopje
Ministerial Conference, and subsequently endorsed by the
Committee of Ministers as Recommendation Rec(2007)5 on the
conclusion of transfrontier co-operation agreements in
South-Eastern Europe. |
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