President submitted to the State Duma for ratification Protocol No. 2 to the European Outline Convention of Trans-Frontier Cooperation between Territorial Communities and Authorities. The protocol, which dates from May 5, 1998, and concerns inter-territorial cooperation, was signed by the Russian Federation in Strasbourg on October 4, 2006.
The Protocol extends the provisions of the Outline Convention and the Additional Protocol to the Convention to non-adjacent territories, that is to say, to use the Council of Europe’s terminology, to inter-territorial cooperation (what in Russia is usually called inter-regional cooperation).
Under Article 6 of the Protocol, each party to the European Outline Convention and its Additional Protocol must, when signing the Protocol or depositing the instruments of ratification, adoption or approval with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, state whether it will enforce in accordance with Article 4 of the Protocol the provisions of both articles 4 and 5 of the Additional Protocol to the European Outline Convention or only one of them.
Ratification of the Protocol and the statement on the enforcement of the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 of the Additional Protocol will make it possible not only to bring all of Russia’s regions under the Convention’s provisions (currently the Convention applies to only 49 of the country’s regions that are adjacent to borders) but also to set a framework for establishing legal provisions in Russia’s own legal system that will lay the foundation for cooperation between non-adjacent territorial communities.
So far, the Protocol has been signed by 23 Council of Europe member states, of which 15 have ratified it.
Ratification of the Protocol is in Russia’s long-term national interests. The Protocol’s entry into force will encourage Russia’s regions and municipalities to develop ties with territories in Europe and elsewhere, including in the CIS, and will substantially develop the legal basis for Russia’s full inclusion in the integration processes underway in Europe.