Request for inclusion in the agenda of the sessionQuestion included in the Agenda of the Session and referred by the Assembly to the Committee on Population and Refugees, on 17th September, 1952,14th Sitting. | Doc. 51 | 17th September, 1952
The Assembly,
Considering that the the maintenance of a large and prosperous agricultural population is essential to safeguard the present and future prosperity of the nations of Europe,
Considering that the existence of an independent class of country-dwellers devoted to the land they cultivate is essential to the economic and political stability of the States of Europe,
Considering that the ever-increasing disproportion between town and country-dwellersrepresents a grave danger to the social and spiritual harmony of the notions of Europe,
Considering that several thousand European agricultural workers who have been expropriated, or are redundant, cannot in present circumstances find land to cultivate in Europe,
Being of the opinion that the absorption and rehabilitation of these persons is both a social duty and an urgent political necessity,
Being of the opinion that a genuine European Community presupposes a spirit of solidarity with respect to freedom of movementand settlement for the inhabitants of Europe,
Being of the opinion that the increase in food production desired by the international technical organisations can be achieved by a more rational utilisation of the potential agricultural manpower of certain countries,
Being of the opinion that, for humanitarian reasons, areas for settlement should be sought in Europe before recourse is had to outlets in overseas territories,
Decides to include the following question in its Agenda :
"Methods of integrating refugee or surplus agricultural workers into the agriculturaleconomy of the Member States of the Council of Europe ",
and instructs its Committee on Population and Refugees to study, in co-operation with the Special Committee on Agriculture and with those international and national organisations concerned with this problem, measures for absorbing these persons into the agricultural life of the Member States.