Declaration of Principles on Local Autonomy
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 15 and 16 May 1969 (6th and 7th Sittings) (see Doc. 2560, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 16 May 1969 (7th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Reiterating its view that repeated crises could bring near collapse of the world monetary system and great damage to trade and living standards ;
2. Referring in particular to the action taken in this field by its Special Committee for Municipal and Regional Affairs since its creation in 1952 ;
3. Taking into consideration the ideas which have always guided the activities of the Assembly and the European Conference of Local Authorities in their struggle for the protection or recognition of local freedoms in the member countries of the Council of Europe ;
4. Recalling once again that the political structures of European civilisation and its fundamental liberties have their deepest and oldest roots in the autonomy of local communities ;
5. Noting at the same time that European society is developing towards an ever acuter appreciation of the essential role of the basic units of society and towards an ever more active participation of these units in the management of national and international affairs ;
6. Believing that governments have a duty to recognise this profound aspiration of the individual units of which our member states are composed ;
7. Considering that the Declaration of Principles on Local Autonomy submitted for approval to the Committee of Ministers by the European Conference of Local Authorities constitutes for the representatives of these authorities a minimum which they have accepted in the hope of obtaining the agreement of all member governments of the Council of Europe on a declaration which would constitute a common structural basis for the European local communities,
8. Approves the principles contained in this Declaration as they are defined in
Resolution 64 (1968) of the European Conference of Local Authorities and instructs its Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities to prepare, in collaboration with the Standing Committee of the Conference, a joint text meeting the considerations both of the Consultative Assembly and of the European Conference of Local Authorities.
