Besides technical objectives such as setting up a fully operational Permanent Secretariat in Innsbruck/A and an agency in Bolzano/I, the programme also lists a number of specific goals. In the tourism sector the German chairmanship is planning to organise a competition for sustainable tourist areas. Also to be promoted is the creation of cross-border preservation areas in the Alps. The Population and Culture task force is to conceive its work as a bottom-up process and, for example, incorporate the "Alliance in the Alps" municipality network. Co-operation with other mountain regions is another of the programme's mainstays, for which the German chairmanship and a number of countries such as Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have already resolved to provide financial support. At Switzerland's suggestion the next ministerial conference, to be held in November 2004, is to specify a multi-annual programme for the Alpine Convention.
The meeting also saw long discussions, held in part behind closed doors and with no rapporteurs admitted, concerning the salary of the Alpine Convention's Secretary General ad interim. The staff employed by the Permanent Secretariat in Innsbruck is still very modest, which is why the activities observable at present remain limited. However, the Alpine Convention has now received new impetus, having spent the best part of the past two years establishing the selection process for the Permanent Secretariat, during which it had little time for progress in terms of content. The aim now is to realise the ambitious objectives set out by the German chairmanship.
10-points programme in German, French, Italian or Slovene, available under: http://www.cipra.org/en/alpmedia/news/764