This form of activity dates from a resolution adopted by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on 2 August 1951.
[citation needed] The resolution allowed for the adoption of agreements by a limited number of member states, without the participation of the remainder.
There is one agreement, the European Card for Substantially Handicapped Persons, dating from 1977, which was still-born, having never attracted sufficient interest from member states and so was never implemented.
In 2007, the activities of the public health partial agreement were transferred to the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, despite the fact that the member states were not the same.
The Council of Europe treaty office issues regularly updated information on all partial and enlarged agreements, listing all member states, observers, dates of accession and reference texts.