Key Benefits:
President of the Republic,
On the report of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Considering articles 52 to 55 of the Constitution;
Considering the environmental code;
Considering the code of urban planning;
In light of Act No. 93-24 of 8 January 1993 on the protection and development of landscapes and amending certain legislative provisions on public investigations;
Considering Law No. 2005-1272 of 13 October 2005 authorizing the approval of the European Landscape Convention;
Having regard to the amended Decree No. 53-192 of 14 March 1953 concerning the ratification and publication of the international commitments undertaken by France;
In view of Decree No. 84-432 of 4 June 1984 on the publication of the European Framework Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation of Territorial Authorities Open for signature in Madrid on 21 May 1980;
In view of Decree No. 95-1039 of 18 September 1995 on the publication of the European Convention for the Protection of Archaeological Heritage (Revised) signed in Malta on 16 January 1992,
Decrete:
The European Landscape Convention, signed in Florence on 20 October 2000, will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
The Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs are responsible for the execution of this Order, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
C O N V E N T I O N E U R O P E N E
COUNTRIES
Preamble
The States members of the Council of Europe, signatories to this Convention,
Considering that the purpose of the Council of Europe is to achieve a closer union between its members, in order to safeguard and promote the ideals and principles that are their common heritage, and that this goal is pursued in particular by the conclusion of agreements in the economic and social fields;
To achieve sustainable development based on a harmonious balance between social needs, the economy and the environment;
Noting that the landscape is an important part of the general interest in the cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, and that it is a resource for economic activity, including appropriate protection, management and development can contribute to job creation;
Aware that the landscape contributes to the development of local cultures and represents a fundamental component of Europe's cultural and natural heritage, contributing to the development of human beings and to the consolidation of European identity;
Acknowledging that the landscape is everywhere an important element of the quality of life of the population: in urban and rural areas, in degraded and high-quality territories, in remarkable spaces as in everyday areas;
Noting that developments in agricultural, forestry, industrial and mining production techniques and practices in land use planning, urban planning, transport, networks, tourism and leisure and, more generally, global economic changes continue, in many cases, to accelerate landscape transformation;
Desiring to respond to the desire of the public to enjoy quality landscapes and to play an active role in their transformation;
Persequented that landscape is an essential element of individual and social well-being, and that its protection, management and development involve rights and responsibilities for everyone;
Having in mind the legal texts existing at the international level in the fields of the protection and management of the natural and cultural heritage, the development of the territory, the local autonomy and the cross-border cooperation, including the Convention on the Conservation of the Wild Life and the Natural Environment of Europe (Berne, 19 September 1979), the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Diversity of Europe (Grenade, 3 October 1985),
Recognizing that the quality and diversity of European landscapes is a common resource for the protection, management and development of which cooperation is needed;
Wishing to establish a new instrument dedicated exclusively to the protection, management and development of all European landscapes,
The following agreed:
Chapter I
General provisions
Article 1
Definitions
For the purposes of this Convention:
(a) "Landscape" means a part of territory as perceived by the populations, whose character results from the action of natural and/or human factors and their interrelations;
(b) "Landscape Policy" means the formulation by the competent public authorities of general principles, strategies and guidelines for the adoption of specific measures for the protection, management and development of the landscape;
(c) " Landscape quality objective " means the formulation by the competent public authorities, for a given landscape, of the aspirations of the people with regard to the landscape characteristics of their living environment;
(d) "Protection of landscapes" includes actions to conserve and maintain significant or characteristic aspects of a landscape, justified by its heritage value emaming its natural configuration and/or human intervention;
(e) "L landscape management" includes actions aimed, from a sustainable development perspective, to maintain the landscape in order to guide and harmonize transformations induced by social, economic and environmental developments;
(f) "Landscape planning" includes actions of a particularly pro-active nature aimed at the development, restoration or creation of landscapes.
Article 2
Scope
Subject to the provisions of Article 15, this Convention applies to all the territory of the Parties and covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas. It includes land areas, inland and maritime waters. It concerns both the landscapes that can be considered remarkable, the landscapes of everyday life and the degraded landscapes.
Article 3
Objectives
The purpose of this Convention is to promote the protection, management and development of landscapes and to organize European cooperation in this field.
Chapter II
National measures
Article 4
Distribution of competencies
Each Party shall implement this Convention, in particular its Articles 5 and 6, in accordance with its own division of competence, in accordance with its constitutional principles and administrative organization, and in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, taking into account the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Without derogating from the provisions of this Convention each Party shall implement this Convention in accordance with its own policies.
Article 5
General measures
Each Party shall:
(a) to legally recognize the landscape as an essential component of the population ' s living environment, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage and the foundation of their identity;
b) to define and implement landscape policies aimed at the protection, management and development of landscapes through the adoption of the specific measures referred to in Article 6;
(c) establish procedures for public participation, local and regional authorities, and other actors involved in the design and implementation of landscape policies referred to in paragraph (b) above;
(d) integrate the landscape into land use planning, urban planning and cultural, environmental, agricultural, social and economic policies, as well as other policies that may have a direct or indirect impact on the landscape.
Article 6
Special measures
A. - Awareness-raising
Each Party undertakes to increase awareness of civil society, private organizations and public authorities about the value of landscapes, their role and their transformation.
B. Training and education
Each Party undertakes to promote:
(a) the training of knowledge and landscape intervention specialists;
(b) multidisciplinary training programmes on landscape policy, protection, management and development for private and public sector professionals and relevant associations;
(c) School and academic lessons in interested disciplines addressing the values of landscape and issues related to its protection, management and development.
C. - Identification and qualification
1. By mobilizing the actors concerned in accordance with Article 5(c) and for a better understanding of its landscapes, each Party undertakes:
(a) (i) to identify its own landscapes throughout its territory;
(ii) analyse their characteristics and the dynamics and pressures that change them;
(iii) to follow the transformations thereof;
(b) to characterize the landscapes identified taking into account the particular values attributed to them by the actors and the populations concerned;
2. Identification and qualification work will be guided by exchanges of experiences and methodologies, organized between the Parties at the European level pursuant to Article 8.
D. - Landscape quality objectives
Each Party undertakes to formulate landscape quality objectives for identified and qualified landscapes, after consultation with the public in accordance with Article 5 (c).
E. Implementation
In order to implement landscape policies, each Party undertakes to establish means of intervention aimed at the protection, management and/or development of landscapes.
Chapter III
European cooperation
Article 7
International policies and programmes
Parties undertake to cooperate in taking into account the landscape dimension in international policies and programmes, and to recommend, where appropriate, that landscape considerations be incorporated into it.
Article 8
Mutual assistance and information exchange
Parties undertake to cooperate to enhance the effectiveness of measures taken in accordance with the articles of this Convention, in particular:
(a) to provide mutual technical and scientific assistance through the collection and exchange of experiences and research in landscapes;
(b) to promote exchanges of landscape specialists, including training and information;
(c) to exchange information on all matters covered by the provisions of this Convention.
Article 9
Cross-border landscapes
Parties undertake to encourage cross-border cooperation at the local and regional level and, where necessary, to develop and implement common landscape development programmes.
Article 10
Follow-up to the implementation of the Convention
1. The existing competent expert committees, established under Article 17 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, are entrusted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, with the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention.
2. After each meeting of the Committees of Experts, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe transmits a report on the work and functioning of the Convention to the Committee of Ministers.
3. The Committees of Experts propose to the Committee of Ministers the criteria for awarding and regulating a Council of Europe Landscape Award.
Article 11
Council of Europe Landscape Award
1. The Council of Europe's Landscape Award can be attributed to local and regional communities and their groupings which, within the framework of the landscape policy of a Party to this Convention, have implemented a policy or measures aimed at the protection, management and/or sustainable development of their landscapes, demonstrating sustainable efficiency and thus providing an example to other European territorial communities. The distinction may also be attributed to non-governmental organizations that have made a particularly remarkable contribution to the protection, management or development of the landscape.
2. Nominations to the Council of Europe Landscape Award will be forwarded to the Committees of Experts referred to in Article 10 by the Parties. Cross-border local and regional communities and the groupings of relevant local or regional communities may be candidates, provided they manage together the landscape in question.
3. On the proposal of the Committees of Experts referred to in Article 10 the Committee of Ministers defines and publishes the criteria for the award of the Council of Europe Landscape Award, adopts its rules and awards the prize.
4. The award of the Council of Europe's Landscape Award must lead the subjects who are responsible for ensuring the protection, management and/or sustainable landscape development.
Chapter IV
Final clauses
Article 12
Relations with other instruments
The provisions of this Convention shall not affect the stricter provisions for the protection, management or development of landscapes contained in other binding national or international instruments that are or will enter into force.
Article 13
Signature, ratification, entry into force
1. This Convention is open for signature by the Member States of the Council of Europe. It will be subject to ratification, acceptance or approval. Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval will be deposited near the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
2. The Convention shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date on which ten Member States of the Council of Europe have expressed their consent to be bound by the Convention in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
3. For any signatory who subsequently expresses its consent to be bound by the Convention, the Convention shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date of deposit of the instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval.
Article 14
Access
1. After the entry into force of this Convention, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe may invite the European Community and any European State not a member of the Council of Europe to accede to the Convention, by a majority decision provided for in Article 20.d of the Statute of the Council of Europe, and unanimously by States Parties having the right to sit on the Committee of Ministers.
2. For any Member State or for the European Community in the event of accession, this Convention shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date of deposit of the instrument of accession near the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Article 15
Territorial application
1. Any State or European Community may, at the time of signature or at the time of deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, designate the territory or territories to which this Convention shall apply.
2. Any Party may, at any time thereafter, by a declaration addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, extend the application of this Convention to any other territory designated in the declaration. The Convention shall enter into force in respect of that territory on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date of receipt of the declaration by the Secretary General.
3. Any declaration made under the preceding two paragraphs may be withdrawn with respect to any territory designated in that declaration by notification addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The withdrawal shall take effect on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary General.
Article 16
Denunciation
1. Any Party may, at any time, denounce this Convention by sending a notification to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
2. The denunciation shall take effect on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary General.
Article 17
Amendments
1. Any Party or Committees of Experts referred to in Article 10 may propose amendments to this Convention.
2. Any amendment proposal shall be notified to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe who shall communicate it to the Member States of the Council of Europe, other Parties and to each non-member European State that has been invited to accede to this Convention in accordance with the provisions of Article 14.
3. Any amendment proposal shall be considered by the Committees of Experts referred to in Article 10 who submit the text adopted by a three-quarters majority of the representatives of the Parties to the Committee of Ministers for adoption. After its adoption by the Committee of Ministers by majority under Article 20.d of the Statute of the Council of Europe and unanimously by the representatives of the States Parties entitled to sit on the Committee of Ministers, the text is transmitted to the Parties for acceptance.
4. Any amendment shall enter into force with respect to the Parties that have accepted it on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date on which three members of the Council of Europe have informed the Secretary General that they have accepted it. For any other Party that has subsequently accepted it, the amendment shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date on which the said Party has informed the Secretary General of its acceptance.
Article 18
Notifications
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe shall notify the Member States of the Council of Europe, to any State or European Community that has acceded to this Convention:
(a) any signature;
(b) the deposit of any instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession;
(c) any effective date of this Convention in accordance with Articles 13, 14 and 15;
(d) any declaration made under Article 15;
(e) any denunciation made under article 16;
(f) any amendment proposal, as well as any amendment adopted in accordance with Article 17 and the date on which that amendment comes into force;
(g) any other act, notification, information or communication relating to this Convention.
In faith, the undersigned, duly authorized to do so, have signed this Convention.
Made in Florence, on 20 October 2000, in French and English, both texts being equally authentic, in a single copy which will be deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe shall transmit certified copies thereof to each Member State of the Council of Europe and to any State or European Community invited to accede to this Convention.
Done in Paris, 20 December 2006.
Jacques Chirac
By the President of the Republic:
The Prime Minister,
Dominique de Villepin
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Philippe Douste-Blazy
