The European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities, also called the Madrid Convention, was launched by the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a p ...

(CoE) in 1980. The convention provides a legal framework for the establishment of

cross-border region A cross-border region is a territorial entity that is made of several local or regional authorities that are co-located yet belong to different nation states. Cross-border regions exist to take advantage of geographical conditions to strengthen th ...

s. As of 2014, it has been ratified by 39 CoE member states. The convention has two parts. Whereas the first part contains the legally binding regulations of the treaties, the second part lists a series of ‘model agreements’, both for the inter-state and the local levels, as options for possible CBC arrangements. This latter part of the convention is intended for guidance only and has no treaty value.
The legally binding obligation the Convention puts on the signatory states is to facilitate cross-border cooperation between territorial authorities and to promote the conclusion of agreements that may prove necessary for this purpose (art. 1). Furthermore, the contracting parties commit to encourage any initiative by territorial authorities inspired by the model agreements listed in part two of the convention. At the same time, the fulfilment of these obligations is subject to a number of clauses. CBC shall not alter the existing powers of the territorial authorities as they are defined in the respective domestic legal orders. The signatory states are also allowed to exclude certain types of authorities from the scope of the convention. These clauses mean that the fulfilment of the

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

Convention is always limited by national law.
The second part of the Convention contains various optional ‘model agreements’, grouped in two categories, i.e. inter-state agreements on the one hand, and contracts between

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

, on the other. The proposed model agreements provide possible frameworks for varying degrees of co-operation which were drafted according to actually existing CBC treaties and arrangements, such as the 1974 treaty between Luxembourg and the German Land Rheinland-Pfalz. For instance, the model agreements listed under art. 1.4 and 1.5 were inspired by the such as the 1974 treaty between Luxembourg and the German Land Rheinland-Pfalz Subsequently, they informed a series of further inter-state treaties, enabling local authorities to participate in private and

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...

CBC initiatives. In 1995, the convention was supplemented by an Additional Protoco

ruling that cross-border co-operative arrangements can be set up as independent bodies which may or may not have

legal personality Legal capacity is a quality denoting either the legal aptitude of a person to have rights and liabilities (in this sense also called transaction capacity), or altogether the personhood itself in regard to an entity other than a natural pers ...

. If the co-operation body does have legal personality, the latter is defined in the law of the country in which its headquarters are located. As stated in art. 4, the co-operation body cannot be empowered to take measures which apply generally or which might affect the rights and freedoms of individuals. It must be specified whether the body is to be considered a public or

private law Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the '' jus commune'' that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts and torts (as it is called in the common law), and the law of obligations ...

entity within the respective national legal systems.
However, the protocol gives the signatory states the option to extend the powers of such co-operation bodies (art. 5). They can be established as public law entities whose decisions have the same

legal force The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

as if they had been taken by the participating authorities themselves. Such bodies can therefore make decisions which are legally binding not only for the participating authorities but also for any individuals affected. In view of the far-reaching implications of such a transnational public authority, Germany, France and Sweden chose to sign the protocol without art. 5.
The Additional Protocol significantly extends the provisions made by the Madrid Convention. However, the Convention still does not contain any regulations that override national law. This is why all initiatives have to conform to the national legal systems of the respective countries. Thus, no public law CBC initiative can be based on the CoE Convention and its additional protocols, but must be grounded either in inter-state treaties or at least unilaterally in national law.

Notes

{{reflist Boundary treaties Treaties concluded in 1980 Treaties entered into force in 1981 Council of Europe treaties Treaties of Albania Treaties of Armenia Treaties of Austria Treaties of Azerbaijan Treaties of Belgium Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina Treaties of Bulgaria Treaties of Croatia Treaties of Cyprus Treaties of the Czech Republic Treaties of Denmark Treaties of Finland Treaties of France Treaties of Georgia (country) Treaties of West Germany Treaties of Hungary Treaties of Ireland Treaties of Italy Treaties of Latvia Treaties of Liechtenstein Treaties of Lithuania Treaties of Luxembourg Treaties of Moldova Treaties of Monaco Treaties of Montenegro Treaties of the Netherlands Treaties of Norway Treaties of Poland Treaties of Portugal Treaties of Romania Treaties of Russia Treaties of Serbia Treaties of Slovakia Treaties of Slovenia Treaties of Spain Treaties of Sweden Treaties of Switzerland Treaties of Turkey Treaties of Ukraine 1980 in Spain Treaties extended to West Berlin ca:Conveni Marc Europeu sobre Cooperació Transfronterera entre comunitats o autoritats territorials fr:Convention-cadre européenne sur la coopération transfrontalière des collectivités ou autorités territoriales