AEM Records

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Mountain policy

The actions carried out by the AEM to promote a mountain policy are aimed at developing and implementing a policy of sustainable development for the mountain regions at pan-European, Community, national and regional level.

This should be a global, integrated and balanced policy for the management of open spaces, economic development, social progress, management and protection of national resources, bio-diversity and the environment, while preserving identities and cultures. Ideally the approach should be on the basis of trans-national and interregional co-operation.

Community policies

The AEM demands a commitment from the EU in favour of the mountain areas. Balanced, sustainable development of the mountain areas must become a European objective. In particular, it will be necessary to increase specific consideration of mountain agriculture within the common agricultural policy and the implementation of “mountain” programmes at infra-regional, regional and inter-regional levels, particularly as regards the mountain massifs. The AEM would like the mountain problem to be included in the various community programmes, particularly those involving inter-regional or trans-national co-operation.

Given the special issues of the mountain areas and the prospect of the enlargement of the European Union, particularly to those countries with mountain regions, the AEM calls on the Member States to:

• add a territorial section to the economic and social sections of the cohesion policy;
• recognise the territorial diversity of Europe (mountain, peripheral, island, sea coast, arctic, arid and urban areas);
• include these reforms in the Treaty on European Union and to ensure that they are reflected in community programmes and financing.

Draft European Convention for the mountain areas

In 1994 the 3rd European Conference for the Mountain Regions, organised by the Council of Europe, adopted a European Charter for the mountain areas. This text was approved by the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) and by the Committee of the Regions of the Union.

By a decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, this document has been transformed into a draft convention and summarised in a draft convention framework which received the support of the CLRAE at its session of May 2000.

The AEM wishes this convention framework to be adopted, submitted for signature by the States and ratified as quickly as possible, at the latest for the international mountain year in 2002. It also calls on the European Community to become a party to it when the time comes.

The Alpine Convention

The AEM participates in the work of the Alpine Conference and its permanent Committee, and in various working groups responsible for monitoring its implementation.

The AEM considers that the Alps are an exceptional heritage common to all Europeans. It is necessary to protect and enhance them, to manage and safeguard their natural resources, biodiversity and landscape and to protect their environment. It is also necessary to ensure that the Alpine populations can continue to live and work there.

The AEM wishes the local and regional authorities to be closely associated with the development and implementation of the Alpine policy, respecting the principle of subsidiarity and as part of a genuine trans-national and interregional co-operation policy.

The concrete application of the convention and its protocols requires the definition of precise priorities, the only way of initiating real cross border co-operation, without wasting effort and splitting financial resources. The establishment of a permanent secretariat is necessary if the convention is to have any effect on the ground.

International Mountain Year in 2002

The AEM is actively preparing the International Mountain Year scheduled for 2002. It intends to organise conferences and seminars on a number of themes:

• Sustainable development in the east European Mountain Regions;
• Application of the Alpine Convention by local and regional authorities;
• Problems of water in the mountain areas of the Mediterranean basin and populations migrations.