Sustainable Tourism Law

218 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW One of the most significant phases of the drafting process of the current version of the draft Convention , in particular, occurred in August 2016, when the UNWTO’s Secretariat launched a public consultation campaign to give an opportunity to all its Member States to participate in the discussion on the draft Convention, inviting them to submit their comments and proposals to improve its content. Within a 5-month public consultation framework, between August and December 2016, the Secretariat received feedbacks from 35 institutions, both Member States and international organizations – including, in particular, the European Commission, ICAO and IATA – which submitted comments and opinions on the draft text 50 , and which were then transmitted to the members of the Working Group for the purpose of evaluating comments and proposals 51 . However, relating more directly to the position taken by the European Union in March 2015, the UNWTO Secretariat forwarded a formal communication to the Commission for official confirmation regarding the competences of the European Union on the draft International Convention 52 . In this regard, the Commission confirmed its interest in the draft Convention , with particular reference to the content of Annex II – Package travel and Annex III – Accommodation , having obtained the mandate to initiate formal negotiations on the International Convention on behalf of the European Union. In the recommendation dated 6 February 2017, following the decision of the Council authorising the opening of negotiations for the UNWTO Convention on the protection of tourists and on the rights and obligations of tourism service providers, the Commission openly expressed its position on the European draft international Treaty and the content of its Annexes 53 . In particular, regarding the impact of the draft Convention on European legislation, it highlighted that a large part of the draft Treaty was covered by the 50 Among the independent evaluations, see the IFTTA Submission to the UNWTO on the Draft Convention on the Protection of Tourists and Tourism Service Providers , in IFTTA Law Review , 2-2014, p. 16 ss., as well as therein, 3-2014, p. 22 ss., accompanied by the individual comments of M. McDonald, General comments , p. 20, J. Tanti Dougall, Accommodation , p. 21, as well as K. Tonner, Alternative Dispute Resolution , p. 22. 51 The Working Group has met several times to continue the discussions on the content of the Convention, taking into account the comments received in the public consultation: among the meetings we note, in particular, those held on 26 and 27 January (9th meeting), 28 February, 1 and 14 March (10th meeting) and a final meeting on 28 and 29 March 2017 (11th meeting). 52 This issue is particularly important given the fact that the Member States of the European Union need prior official confirmation to be able to proceed with the possible ratification of the annexes to the Convention. 53 See the document of the European Commission of 6 February 2017, Recommendation for a Council decision authorising the opening of negotiations on a UNWTO-Convention on the protection of tourists and the rights and obligations of tourism service providers , COM(2017) 60 final.