The Congress,

1. Acting upon the wish of the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities of the Parliamentary Assembly that the CLRAE formulate a preliminary Opinion on the preliminary draft of the European Charter of the Danube Basin²;

2. Stressing the fundamental role of local and regional authorities which the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities confers on these bodies, as well as its additional Protocol which defines their right to co-operate with one another within the limits of their competencies;

3. Considering that the fields of application of the draft European Charter of the Danube Basin fall almost integrally within areas in which the Congress has competence;

4. Having regard to paragraphs 6, 7, 8 and 11 of the draft’s preamble, which stress the role of territorial communities or authorities in transfrontier co-operation with respect to any activity in the Danube drainage basin;

5. Wishing to endorse and promote the principles incorporated in the specific international and/or regional legal instruments concerned with the Danube, which are referred to in the preliminary draft European Charter of the Danube Basin;

6. Stressing the importance of intensifying co-operation in the fields of environmental protection, sustainable natural resources and water management in Europe;

7. Determined to pursue work also in the framework of the CLRAE on the protection of rivers and water resources by European local and regional authorities;

Has agreed to give the following preliminary Opinion:

The CLRAE,

8. Welcomes the preliminary draft European Charter of the Danube Basin and fully endorses the principles embodied in the document;

9. Considers it necessary that the Charter be opened for signature to member States as soon as possible and that the governments of member States establish an appropriate legal framework in order to fully put into effect the provisions of the Charter by means of a systematic collaboration;

10. Suggests that such legal framework should facilitate co-operation not only at an interstate level but particularly at the level of local and regional authorities, in compliance with the spirit of the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation and its additional Protocol;

11. Recalls its earlier request addressed to the Committee of Ministers to speed up the adoption of the draft European Convention on Inter-Territorial Co-operation, which could provide a legal framework for such co-operation between non-adjacent local and regional authorities;

12. Proposes to the Committee on the Environment Regional Planning and Local Authorities of the Parliamentary Assembly that the draft Charter be amended as follows:

a. Article 2 point g should be deleted. The CLRAE is in the process of elaborating a draft European Charter of Regional Self-Government, and it is already apparent that a uniform definition of the "region" in Europe cannot exist;

b. Article 2 point j should also make reference to Recommendation R (95) 19 adopted by the Committee of Ministers on the implementation of the principle of subsidiarity.

c. The third sentence of Article 17 (The Parliamentary Assembly...) should be incorporated in Article 15 (Membership of the Standing Committee) as a new point 4.

d. The last paragraph of Article 25 should be replaced with the following text:

Should the Parties be unable to reach an agreement on the solution of a dispute within one year following the notification by one Party to the other, the Parties in question may choose to submit the matter either to an arbitration tribunal, including the Permanent Court of Arbitration, or to judicial settlement by the International Court of Justice in the Hague under a procedure to be adopted by the Standing Committee.