- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 21 and 22 January 1974 (20th and 21st Sittings) (see Doc. 3373Doc. 3373, report of the Committee on European Non-Member Countries). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1974 (21st Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Recalling its Recommendations 511 (1968) and 547 (1969) and its
Resolution 519 (1972) about the situation in Greece ;
2. Deeply concerned by the confused political developments in that country ;
3. Regretting that hopes for a progressive return to democracy have not yet been fulfilled ;
4. Condemning the continued violation of human rights by the regime in Athens, especially the treatment of prisoners, the arbitrary arrest and detention without trial of Greek citizens,
5. Urges the new Greek Government to give effect to its promise, reiterated by President Ghizikis in his New Year's Day message, "to create the necessary foundations for a genuinely democratic and unhindered political life" ;
6. Expresses its conviction that essential preconditions for the latter include :
a the lifting of the state of emergency and release of all political detainees ;
b the restoration of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to organise political parties freely ;
c local and municipal elections, with secret ballot, held under conditions of unrestricted freedom of expression ;
d election under the same conditions of a parliament, which might also be a constituent assembly ;
e the drafting, adoption and promulgation of a genuinely democratic constitution, guaranteeing effective powers to parliament ;
7. Appeals to governments to exert all their influence to this end, both individually and collectively within organisations such as NATO and EEC ;
8. Invites the members of the Assembly to do all in their power to urge their governments to take such action ;
9. Expresses its support for the repeatedly reaffirmed position of EEC that unfreezing of the Association Agreement of 1961 depends on a return to parliamentary democracy in Greece ;
10. Looks forward to welcoming Greece back into the Council of Europe when the above conditions have been fulfilled ;
11. Instructs its Committee on European Non-Member Countries and its Political Affairs Committee to continue to follow the situation in Greece
