On 26th October last, before it broke up, the Assembly fixed the opening date of the third part-Session for Tuesday, 8th January 1957. The Standing Committee, on 19th November, adopted the Agenda of this third part-Session and took formal note of the draft time-table prepared by the Bureau.
In connection with the second part-Session, the Bureau secured the participation of several Ministers in the debates of the Assem-bly :
M. Martiho, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, presented the Report of the Committee of Ministers, Doc. 543, and took part in the debate on this Report and in that on general policy;
M. Gerard Jaquet, Secretary of State in the Office of the Prime Minister of the French Government and M. Cassimatis, Minister of State in the Greek Government, participated in the debate on general policy;
M. Figl, Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, representing the Council of 0. E. E. C, presented the OEEC Report to the Council of Europe and took part in the debate on it;
M. Seebohm, Minister of Transport of the Federal Republic of Germany, took part in the debate on the Second Report of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport.
The Bureau took the opportunity, on the occasion of the Paris meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Conference, of inviting a delegation of American and Canadian parliamentarians to meet a delegation of members of the Assembly. This meeting, which was held on 20th November, succeeded in preparing the way for the holding of a second Strasbourg Conference similar to that of 1951, but with the participation of Canadian Members of Parliament.
Following the meeting, official invitations were sent on, 16th December 1956, by the President of the Assembly to the Presiding officers of the two Houses of the United States Congress and those of the two Houses of the Canadian Parliament. The letters suggest for the Conference the period from Monday, 1.8th to Friday, 22nd March 1957.
In accordance with the terms of Resolution 104, the Bureau set up a Working Party to maintain relations between the Assembly and national parliaments, and, in doing so, tried to ensure fair representation of member countries or groups of member countries, as well as of political groups.
The Working Party, consisting of the following Representatives : MM. Czernetz, Fens, Lannung, Mommer, Montini, Moutet and Ramsden, held its first meeting on 17th December 1956, in Paris.
In view of the urgent nature of the questions raised, and in accordance with Rule 39, paragraph 4 of the Rules of Procedure, the Standing Committee discussed the two reports, Doc. 587 and Doc. 588, presented by the Committee on Population and Refugees and the Special Committee on non-represented nations concerning aid to Hungarian refugees and the situation in Hungary, respectively. In conclusion, the Committee adopted on behalf of the Assembly Recommendation 106 and Resolution 113, as amended.
At its meeting of 19th November 1956, the Standing Committee :
In order to explore possible solutions to the problems created by the influx of Hungarian refugees into Austria,
The Committee on Municipal and Regional Affairs met in Paris on 13th December 1956, and the Committee on General Affairs met, also in Paris, on 14th and 15th December 1956.