COUNCIL OF EUROPE

COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

________

RESOLUTION (96) 36

ESTABLISHING THE CRITERIA FOR PARTIAL

AND ENLARGED AGREEMENTS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 17 October 1996,
at the 575th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)

    The Committee of Ministers,

    Considering Statutory Resolution (93) 28 on partial and enlarged agreements adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 14 May 1993 at its 92nd Session;

    Having regard in particular to paragraph III of Statutory Resolution (93) 28 as well as to Resolution (94) 31 on the method of calculating the scales of member states' contributions to Council of Europe budgets;

    Wishing to ensure that partial and enlarged agreements created within the Council of Europe follow common criteria;

    On the basis of the proposals presented by its Ad hoc Working Party on Partial Agreements,

    Decides that, in the case of the setting up of a new partial and enlarged agreement, and for existing partial and enlarged agreements, the following criteria should be observed:

1.    All future agreements shall be founded on the political priorities as defined by the Committee of Ministers, and must in all events contribute to the achievement of the Organisation's priority aims.

2.    No new partial agreement shall be established without a sufficient number of participating states, one third of the member states being fixed as the minimum number. If an existing partial agreement no longer meets this criterion, the Committee of Ministers will decide whether it should continue.

3.    To participate regularly in the activities of a partial agreement, member states of the Council of Europe will have to be members of the said agreement, unless the partial agreement's member states decide otherwise.

4.    The membership of a partial agreement should, in principle, reflect a certain geographical balance amongst the different regions covered by the Organisation, in order to avoid a drift away from the Organisation's core values and an associated lack of coherence, as well as the creation of unduly "restricted" agreements.

5.    Agreements shall seek the necessary synergy with other bodies and institutions, governmental and/or non governmental, in order notably to avoid duplication of work, and with regard to co-operation on financing activities to be undertaken within the framework of such agreements.

6.    New agreements shall be created for an initial trial period of not more than three years, at the end of which a strict evaluation shall be undertaken by the Committee of Ministers with a view to deciding whether the agreement should be either dissolved or allowed to continue, subject to paragraph 2 above.

7.    With a view to ensuring the exercise by the Committee of Ministers of the necessary political control, and without prejudice to paragraph 6 above, all agreements shall submit an annual report of their activities and financing to the Committee of Ministers.