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On 19 December 2013 the European Council will decide whether there should be a European strategy for the Alpine space. States and regions have been working for months on an appropriate proposal - while excluding representatives of civil society. Why the alpine macro-region needs the science, NGOs and municipalities.

Much was at stake, but finally the concerns regarding the validity of the traffic protocol have been dismissed. How a declaration on a declaration saved the principle at the heart of the Alpine Convention, but cannot exorcise the ghost of the Alemagna autobahn.

This year's CIPRA annual specialist conference is to address the implementation of the Alpine Convention with a special focus on the issue of (transit) traffic.

For years the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps CIPRA has been demanding that the Alpine states draw up a Water Protocol to the Alpine Convention. In Innsbruck/A CIPRA itself tabled a proposal for such a Protocol to coincide with the UN's International Year of Freshwater 2003.

The web site of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps CIPRA-International recently underwent a complete makeover. Information on CIPRA and its member organisations is now posted in a trendier layout at www.cipra.org , with items such as News, Events (e.g. Summer Academy or Annual Conference), Activities, Publications and Positions.

Tiroler Wasserkraft AG (TIWAG) and Salzachwind GmbH are planning to build several wind farms in the Wipptal/Brenner region on the Austrian-Italian border. The Austrian Alpine Association (ÖAV) is calling for an immediate stop to the planning work for the wind farms as they are to be erected in a conservation and local recreation area.

The first step towards drawing up a Pyrenean Convention was taken at a meeting of government representatives chaired by Catalonia at Puigcerdà/E in July of this year. At the meeting representatives of the regions concerned (Languedoc-Roussillon/F, Midi-Pyrénées/F, Aquitaine/F, Navarre/E, Aragon/E, Basque Country/E, Catalonia/E and Andorra), which form the Pyrenees Working Group (Communauté de Travail des Pyrénées or CTP), drafted a joint declaration, which is now available online in French, Spanish and Catalonian.

With its planned wind farm on the Brenner Pass, Italy is breaching the Alpine Convention, according to the Club Arc Alpin, which has petitioned the Alpine Convention's committee of inquiry. For the first time in the history of the convention, "complaint proceedings" have begun.

The Action Plan following the Ministers' Declaration of Alpbach rests on the joint commitments taken by the Alpine countries which fall under the Framework Convention on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. This Action Plan is part of the ongoing discussions to reach a comprehensive and ambitious post-2012 agreement and takes into account the commitments made in this regard by the European Union. Its aim is to go beyond the general framework to offer concrete measures that are specific to the Alps by promoting, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation, themes and measures that could be the subject of regional co-operations in the frame of the Alpine Convention, and by taking into account actions that are already in place on a national, regional and local level. The Action Plan on Climate contributes to both the global effort aiming at reducing greenhouse effect following international commitments by the Contracting Parties and to the quality of life of Alpine populations for present and future generations.