- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 25 January 1988 (19th Sitting) (see Doc. 5841, motion for an order presented by the Bureau of the Assembly). Text adopted by the Assembly on 25 January 1988 (19th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Considering that, despite repeated approaches, the French authorities have not changed their decision of 14 September 1986 introducing a visa requirement for all foreigners other than nationals of the European Community member states, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, but have merely made an exception for delegates and civil servants attending Council of Europe meetings;
2. Considering that these restrictions on freedom of movement are discriminatory and vexatious towards the citizens of several Council of Europe member states, and wishing to display its solidarity with them;
3. Considering that, contrary to the hope raised by the French Prime Minister's reply to an oral question at its sitting on 27 January 1987, the undertaking made concerning the lifting of these measures has not yet been fulfilled,
4. Instructs the Bureau and its President to approach the Committee of Ministers to secure that, in conformity with Article 33 of the Statute, the Assembly's ordinary sessions may be held elsewhere than in Strasbourg;
5. Decides, as a measure of solidarity and protest, to bring the third part of its 39th Session to a close on Wednesday 27 January 1988, after the debate on North-South interdependence and solidarity;
6. Decides to suspend paragraph 2 of its Ruling on meetings of committees and sub-committees of the Assembly elsewhere than in Strasbourg or Paris, including meetings of the Standing Committee and of the Bureau itself;
7. Instructs its President to continue his approaches for the purpose of securing an extension of the preferential treatment accorded to Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the other Council of Europe member states.
