Protocol No. 2 to the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning interterritorial co-operation
Strasbourg, 5.V.1998

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, on 9 November 1995, of the Additional Protocol to the Outline Convention, concerning the legal effects of acts performed within the framework of transfrontier co-operation and of the legal status of any co-operation bodies to be set up by transfrontier cooperation 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,
Have agreed the following provisions:

Article 1
For the purpose of this Protocol, "interterritorial co-operation" shall mean any concerted action designed to establish relations between territorial communities or authorities of two or more Contracting Parties, other than relations of transfrontier co-operation of neighbouring authorities, including the conclusion of co-operation agreements with territorial communities or authorities of other States.

Article 2
1. Each Contracting Party shall recognise and respect the right of territorial communities or authorities within its jurisdiction, and referred to in Articles 1 and 2 of the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities (hereinafter referred to as "the Outline Convention"), to engage in discussions and to draw up, within common fields of responsibility, interterritorial co-operation agreements, in accordance with the procedures laid down in their statutes, in conformity with national law and insofar as such agreements are in keeping with the Contracting Party's international commitments.
2. An interterritorial co-operation agreement shall entail only the responsibilities of the territorial communities or authorities which have concluded it.

Article 3
The Contracting Parties to this Protocol shall apply, mutatis mutandis, the Outline Convention to interterritorial co-operation.

Article 4
The Contracting Parties to this Protocol, which are also Contracting Parties to the Additional Protocol to the Outline Convention (hereinafter referred to as "the Additional Protocol"), shall apply, mutatis mutandis, the aforesaid Protocol to interterritorial co-operation.

Article 5
For the purpose of the present Protocol, "mutatis mutandis" means that in the Outline Convention and the Additional Protocol the term "transfrontier co-operation" shall be read as "interterritorial co-operation" and that the articles of the Outline Convention and of the Additional Protocol shall apply unless otherwise provided by the present Protocol.

Article 6
1. Each Contracting Party to the Outline Convention and to the Additional Protocol shall declare, [...] whether it will apply, pursuant to Article 4 of this Protocol, the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 of the Additional Protocol or one of those articles only.

Article 7
No reservations to the provisions of this Protocol shall be allowed.
[...]

Done at Strasbourg, this 5th day of May 1998, in English and in French, both texts being equally authentic, in a single copy which shall be deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe shall transmit certified copies to each member State of the Council of Europe and to any State invited to accede to this Protocol.