Partial Agreement

Partial agreement is a term used within the Council of Europe to refer to a major activity of European cooperation that is organised by the Council of Europe but does not include all of its member states. This form of activity dates from a resolution adopted by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on 2 August 1951. The resolution allowed for the adoption of agreements by a limited number of member states, without the participation of the remainder. Any expenditure would be made by the participating states alone. This form of variable geometry in intergovernmental cooperation has not been imitated by other international organisations. This form of cooperation also allows some activities to include non-European states as full-fledged participants.

In 1993 the ground-rules were revised by the Committee of Ministers to take into account new developments. Statutory Resolution (93) 28 of the Committee of Ministers replaced the 1951 resolution. It defines three types of agreement:

- A partial agreement: some member States of the Council of Europe;

- An enlarged partial agreement: some member States with one or more non-member states;

- An enlarged agreement: all member States with one or more non-member states.

The Council of Europe currently lists its agreements as the following:

- The Council of Europe Development Bank (1956)

- Partial Agreement in the Social and Public Health Field (1959)

- The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (1964)

- The Pompidou Group - Cooperation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs (1980)

- EUR-OPA - The European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (1987)

- The North-South Centre (1989)

- Eurimages - The European Support Fund for the co-production and distribution of films (1988)

- The Venice Commission) - The European Commission for Democracy through Law (1990)

- The Youth Card (1991)

- The European Audiovisual Observatory (1992)

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