In welcoming the President of the Republic of Portugal on 23 September 1996, the President of the Assembly referred to Expo'98 and in his address to the Assembly Mr Sampaio confirmed that he expected the Council of Europe to be represented at the exhibition.
Your Rapporteur has been in touch with the Expo'98 Management with the aim not only of updating all the information on the Exhibition but also and especially of ensuring the material requirements for the Council of Europe's participation.
Hence the Organisation of Expo'98 guarantees participating countries and international organisations, including the Council of Europe, the allocation not only of space for putting up their pavilions but also of the building costs for such. This can be estimated at 80% of total participation costs.
Thus the costs to be borne by the Council of Europe for its participation in Expo'98 with a permanent pavilion of 342m² shall be limited to the decoration of such pavilion and naturally also to the logistics. According to estimations by the organisers these would include approximately 210.000US$ for staff (10 persons, ten hours a day, seven days a week for six months) and 60.000US$ for general services (insurance, telephone, water, electricity, etc). The total cost of Council of Europe participation should therefore amount to no more than 1.5 Million French Francs. This amount represents 5% of the Cultural Fund budget for 1996 and should be seen as a minimum.
The European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity of the Council of Europe (North-South Centre) is in an ideal situation to play a major role in the Council of Europe's participation in Expo'98. The theme of "The Oceans - an Heritage for the Future" fits very well the theme of Global Interdependence, which is the motto of the North-South Centre and its location in Lisbon allows the Centre to provide organisational and logistic support.
If it is decided that the Council of Europe will participate at Expo'98 with an independent stand, such stand could include a space where Council of Europe meetings, both at intergovernmental and parliamentary level, could take place during the duration of the exhibition. If that is not the case, other possible forms of actively contributing to at the exhibition should be considered, bearing in mind the experience of Seville 1992.
One way or the other a decision must be reached fast, as the deadline for inscriptions in the Lisbon exhibition and for submission of a detailed programme is 22 May 1997.
The European Union announced on 14 November 1996 that it would participate in Expo'98 with a 2400m² pavilion. Its participation costs have been estimated at 8.690 Million ECU (10 Million US$).