Preamble
The member States of the Council of Europe signatory to this Protocol No. 2 to the
European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities
or Authorities,
Considering the conclusion of the Additional Protocol to the Outline Convention, on 9 November 1995, concerning the legal effects of acts performed within the framework
of transfrontier co-operation and of the legal status of any co-operation bodies set
up by transfrontier co-operation agreements;
Considering that in order to perform their functions effectively, territorial communities
or authorities are increasingly co-operating not only with neighbouring authorities
of other States (transfrontier co-operation), but also with foreign non-neighbouring
authorities having common interests (interterritorial co-operation), and are doing
so not only within the framework of transfrontier co-operation bodies and associations
of territorial communities or authorities but also at bilateral level;
Bearing in mind the Vienna Declaration of 1993 of the Heads of State and government
of the member States, which recognised the role of the Council of Europe in the creation
of a tolerant and prosperous Europe through transfrontier co-operation of territorial
communities or authorities;
Noting that in the field of interterritorial co-operation there is no instrument comparable
to the Outline Convention;
Wishing to give interterritorial co-operation an international legal framework,