The Assembly,
approves the principle stated by the conference that workers should be able to find work in their own country or region, but nevertheless draws attention to the advantages of freely-chosen mobility and to the effective social protection which will be afforded to migrant workers once the European statute drawn up by the Council of Europe has entered into force ;
recognises that central, regional and local authorities share responsibility for economic and employment policy, and for the protection of workers against the effects of unemployment, but points out that certain sectors, such as that of social legislation, are generally the exclusive preserve of the state ;
endorses the conference's wish that local and regional authorities, which are better qualified to identify and remedy local difficulties, should be consulted by the central government before any economic policy affecting them is defined ;
considers that recognition of this principle could be embodied in a Council of Europe Committee of Ministers' resolution ;
shares the conference's opinion regarding the particularly harmful effects of the present economic crisis on the economically weaker regions, and endorses the conference's recommendation to reactivate the economy, in particular by financing major infrastructure operations in such regions ;
notes with satisfaction the support expressed by the conference for the Assembly's proposal to invite the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning to set about defining, in co-operation with the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, the main features of the European trunk communications network ;
referring to its Recommendations 693 (1973), and 784 (1976), on the two symposia on frontier regions, and its Recommendation 802 (1977), on regional planning in Europe, reiterates the wish to be consulted on the draft European outline convention on transfrontier co-operation between territorial authorities or communities prior to its signature, and emphasises the urgency of signing and implementing this instrument advocated by it in 1966 in its Recommendation 470, on a draft convention on European co-operation among local authorities ;
joins the conference in stressing the importance for frontier co-operation of the harmonisation of cartographic data and statistics, and especially of regional planning harmonisation schemes, initiated by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning ;
emphasises the importance of the European Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers, approved in Strasbourg on 25 April 1977, and expresses the hope that this legal instrument will speedily be ratified by the member states ;
regrets that the conference did not see fit to endorse the proposals made in its Recommendation 799, on the subject of granting aliens the right to vote at local authority level ;
recalls the proposal made in that same Recommendation 799 to the effect that the competent committee of experts should study procedures for setting up consultative councils to represent aliens at local authority level ;
expresses the hope that the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local Government to be held in Stockholm in 1978 may reach clear and courageous conclusions concerning the participation of aliens in local public life ;
reserves the right to reconsider certain aspects of these resolutions in the course of a more thorough examination to be made by its Committee on Population and Refugees ;
considers that its opinion on Resolution 87 (1976) is still valid, and that this project could be carried out by stages, and notes with satisfaction that the conference now shares this point of view ;
endorses, in particular, the suggestions made in sub-paragraphs a to e of paragraph 8.a of the resolution, but has reservations regarding sub-paragraphs f and g, and in this connection reiterates its proposals concerning the information bulletin on frontier co-operation and nature protection put forward in its Opinion No. 80, paragraph 9.f.