Convention on the Protection of the Alps (Alpine Convention)

The Commission proposal gave rise to no objections, neither as regards its declared legal basis nor as regards its content, albeit limited to the straightforward approval of the November 1991 Convention. The ESC could not but share the hope that the Member States that were signatories to the Convention and the European Union would ratify quickly, so that the Convention could come into force at once. The ESC felt that a range of problems concerning, in particular, farming, nature conservation, tourism and transport would have to be taken into account when drawing up the Convention’s implementing protocols. These problems would have to be solved with due consideration for the fact that ecology was a dynamic relationship between man and the environment; hence certain constraints could not be imposed without taking account of the needs of the population that lived and worked in the upland areas concerned.