About RECEP-ENELC

The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is an international legal framework for a political project aimed at sharing and consolidating a new approach to landscape issues continent-wide. It sets forth principles committing the Contracting States to adopt policies and measures aimed at enhancing the quality of landscapes throughout the national territory, as well as involving the people concerned in the relevant public decision-making processes.

The ELC provisions relating to the division of public responsibilities make an explicit reference to the principle of subsidiarity and local self-government. Accordingly, the ELC Contracting States undertake to involve local and regional authorities in the establishment and the implementation of landscape policies, landscape identification / assessment procedures, the definition of quality objectives and interventions in the areas concerned. At national level, the entry into force of these provisions prompted a growing number of local and regional authorities to strengthen their institutional commitment with regard to landscape. In most cases, this process involved a gradual but substantial adaptation of their technical, administrative, legal and/or statutory framework.

Aware of the importance of this commitment, the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (Congress), the body at the origin of the ELC, in its Resolution 178 (2004) formally encouraged decentralised authorities throughout the Continent to set up a co-operation body able to support them in the implementation of the ELC at local and regional level.

In reply to the Congress’ recommendation and further to the initiative of the Campania Region (Italy), on 30 May 2006 at the Council of Europe’s headquarters in Strasbourg, twenty-two local and regional authorities constituted the European Network of Local and Regional Authorities for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention (RECEP-ENELC), under the aegis of the Congress.

Further to the latest adhesions, RECEP-ENELC is currently composed of thirty-six Members. Other local and regional authorities have since put forward an application for membership or expressed an interest in this respect.

Officially constituted under the aegis of the Council of Europe’s Congress, RECEP-ENELC is an international non-governmental organisation composed of sub-national public authorities. Its aim is to support the interested local and regional authorities, at the scientific, technical, political and administrative levels, in their activities aimed at implementing the ELC’s principles within their territories.

In this framework, RECEP-ENELC encourages the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge concerning the landscape. Within RECEP-ENELC, local and regional authorities have the opportunity to co-operate within a common framework, supported by an international structure, establishing contacts with the competent international organisations, EU Institutions, States’ authorities, non-governmental organisations, universities and other bodies interested in the implementation of the ELC. In accordance with its Statutes, RECEP-ENELC organs are the General Assembly, the Executive Board, the Technical Co-ordination Board and the Scientific Committee.

Following the conclusion of the political mandate of Mrs Gabriella Cundari within the Region of Campania (Italy), on 17 May 2010 the General Assembly of RECEP-ENELC provisionally appointed Mr Joaquim Nadal i Farreras, vice-President of RECEP-ENELC / Minister for Territorial Policy and Public Works of the Government of Catalonia (Spain), as President a.i. of the Network.
RECEP-ENELC's Director a.i. is currently Mr Oriol Porcel Montané, geographer.

Taking into account its international institutional structure, RECEP-ENELC has several Headquarters: the legal headquarters are based in Strasbourg, where the Council of Europe is based, at the Maison des Associations; the permanent headquarters and the Head Office are situated in Florence, the city of the ELC, at the Medicean Villa Careggi.

For further information on RECEP-ENELC and its role with regard to landscape issues, consult the document concerning the contribution of RECEP-ENELC to the Fifth Conference of the Council of Europe on "The European Landscape Convention".

Information about the website of RECEP-ENELC

Image: Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effetti del Buon Governo in campagna, 1337-1340 ca.