The Assembly took a keen interest in the Memorandum addressed to it by the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, containing information on the activities of European interest of that Organisation for the period from July 1959 to July 1961.
Once again the Assembly is impelled to congratulate Unesco on its impressive achievements, impressive both for the variety of the work undertaken and for its manifest success.
In its reply to the Memorandum the Assembly wishes to inform Unesco of the efforts of the Council of Europe to strengthen multilateral cultural co-operation within the framework of Europe.
Matters of potential interest to Unesco are grouped under three headings :
(a) Creation of the CCC
The most noteworthy event which has taken place, and the one which marks the beginning of a new phase in multilateral co-operation in Europe, is the setting up by the Committee of Ministers on 1st January 1962 of the Council for Cultural Co-operation (CCC).
The CCC is the governing body under whose authority are placed three large standing committees of senior officials which prepare all decisions taken in the educational field. They are the Committee for Higher Education and Research, the Committee on General and Technical Education and the Committee on Out-of-School Education (covering youth, popular education - adult education and physical education, sport and open-air activities). The CCC will also set up a number of working parties in connection with general cultural relations (fine arts, travelling exhibitions, etc.).
The CCC replaces the Committee of Cultural Experts and the Administrative Board of the Cultural Fund and assumes all their former rights and responsibilities; it has been in particular entrusted with the following :
(b) Directorate of Educational, Cultural and Scientific Affairs
The effectiveness of the CCC will be increased by the formation within the Secretariat of a Directorate of Education and Cultural and Scientific Affairs which will give a constant impetus to effective cooperation between the member countries of the Council of Europe or parties to the European Cultural Convention. The Secretariat has been instructed to keep in close touch with other inter-governmental organisations active in the educational and cultural fields. Moreover, observers from Unesco, OECD and the three Communities have been invited to attend all meetings of the CCC and its permanent committees.
(c) The new programme
The Council is to draw up and implement a new programme of European cultural co-operation, the elements of which are as follows :
The first element should include a systematic exchange of information between participating States, supplemented by the organisation of periodical meetings between those in charge of education, research, youth activities, sport, out-ofschool education, vocational training, the arts and leisure; the organisation of courses designed to make known to responsible officials in the partner countries pilot projects and new methods employed in a particular country, etc.
The second element would involve the signing of conventions ranging from customs agreements to protocols on the equivalence of diplomas, the organisation of study tours and exchanges of educational material, radio and television programmes, films, etc. It is a field where considerable progress has been made between certain countries, but where certain obstacles have so far thwarted all attempts to organise on an international scale. The conventions in force should continue to be applied, additional texts should be prepared and new working methods be sought.
The third element might open the way to far greater achievements, requiring substantial expenditure. These must in no way be allowed to appear as rival or fractional enterprises in relation to the projects of international organisations of world-wide scope, such as Unesco.
The essential thing here is to determine the spheres in which Europeans, though not content to act within their separate national frameworks, desire to preserve the European character of their enterprises.
The fourth element includes symposia and discussion groups, travelling exhibitions, joint publications, youth meetings on European themes, the organisation of such events as the European Schools'Day, etc. Under this head, ways and means of delegating certain work to non-governmental organisations under the supervision of competent organs of the Council are being explored.
The outcome of the discussions of the three major technical committees, which held their inaugural meetings in March and April 1962, will show how the above suggestions for a new cultural programme will be implemented in practice. The reports of these committees will be examined by the CCC at its second Session in May 1962.
This year's programme was adopted by the Council for Cultural Co-operation on the basis of preparatory work done by the Committee of Cultural Experts and the Administrative Board of the Cultural Fund, and preserves many of the features of the traditional programme of cultural activities of the Council of Europe.
(d) New name of Cultural Committee
Following on the Parliamentary and Scientific Conference held in London, in conjunction with OEEC, in April 1961, the Assembly, with the aim of concerning itself more closely than in the past with scientific matters, adopted a Resolution (Resolution 196) designed to encourage the setting up of machinery for liaison between parliamentary and scientific circles in member countries; it also decided that its Cultural Committee should in future be called the "Cultural and Scientific Committee".
The Assembly would wish to draw attention to several points which may be of particular interest to Unesco.
(a) Participation in the Major Project
In accordance with a wish often expressed by the Consultative Assembly, the Committee of Cultural Experts approved a scheme for contribution by the Council of Europe to the Unesco Major Project on the Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values, based on suggestions made by the Director of the Department of Cultural Activities of Unesco. In 1960 and 1961 the programme provided for the purchase and despatch of copies of the French version of Our Europe to destinations in the Orient selected by Unesco, as well as copies in both English and French of the catalogue of the 6th European exhibition on Sources of the 20th Century : the Arts in Europe from 1884, to 1914, and of sets of colour-slides of the 5th European exhibition on The Romantic Movement.
Planned for 1962 are the purchase and despatch of copies in English and French of the catalogue of the 7th European exhibition on "Roman Art", and of sets of slides of the 6th and 7th European exhibitions. The preparation and distribution of a list of works designed to give an oriental public an accurate and attractive idea of European cultural values, the purchase and despatch of copies in English and French of the collective work resulting from the symposia on the revision of history textbooks (published in 1961 by Sijthoff of Leyden) and the first steps in the preparation of a general work on European culture adopted for oriental readers, will also form part of the 1962 contribution towards the M ajor Project.
(b) Asian and African studies in European universities
Although this new project has no direct bearing upon the Unesco Major Project, it is equally inspired by the desire to increase understanding between European and Oriental cultures; it will be carried out by the Committee for Higher Education and Research, and the Assembly would particularly like to commend it to the attention of Unesco. It involves an enquiry into teaching and research in Asian and African studies in European universities. This Committee is already engaged in an enquiry into the teaching of little-studied languages (mainly Asian and African); the new project will go further and deal with historical, political, economic, sociological and other studies, in relation to the need for increased knowledge in Europe of the Asian and African peoples.
The growing awareness in Europe of her responsibilities towards the less technically progressive countries in the world has given rise to a series of activities betokening a common concern with the cultural aspect of assistance to countries in process of development.
(a) Clearing-house for technical assistance, youth and education
In pursuance of Recommendation 279 on technical assistance, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, in close collaboration with OECD, has agreed to act in association with FAMA (Foundation for Mutual Assistance in Africa South of the Sahara), to form a clearing-house for requests for technical assistance in the fields of youth and education. Requests, which are forwarded us by FAMA (e .g. proposals for a computing centre at the University of Ibadan), are brought to the attention of national authorities, and the Secretariat have also held discussions with certain national authorities on the best way of meeting specific African needs. We also keep in touch with conferences and courses organised by FAMA in fields in which Europe can give some practical assistance (e.g. organisation of training centres in Africa for teaching Africans a second European language).
(b) Course on the welfare of overseas students following long courses of study or training in Western European countries
Drawing upon the results of the third Congress of the European Cultural Foundation, held at Vienna in November 1959, the Cultural Committee of the Consultative Assembly proposed to the Committee of Cultural Experts that a course be held for directors of cultural organisations which act as mentors for foreign students, to provide an exchange of experience and to work out methods for future co-operation. At the invitation of the British Government, a first course on the reception and welfare of overseas students was organised in London by the British Council, under the auspices of the Council of Europe. A second course, to be held by the Deutsche Stiftung fur Entwicklungslander, is to take place in Berlin from 1st to 9th July 1962.
(c) Africa and the European universities
A Working Party of Experts, in association with the Secretariat, has produced a report on the best means of placing the resources of European universities in staff and equipment at the disposal of African students and the African universities. It should be emphasised that this study was confined to Europe and the situation in Europe of African students who come here, and European schemes for supplying staff, equipment, etc. to African universities. A good deal of factual information and statistics were gathered together for the first time and, on the basis of the report, a number of recommendations have been made to European universities and to European Governments, on the development of assistance to African universities and to African students studying in Europe.
(d) Co-operation between European youth movements and youth movements in the uncommitted countries
The European Youth Centre, which it is hoped will be established at Strasbourg under Council of Europe auspices, in pursuance of a recommendation of the Consultative Assembly, will serve as a practical instrument in intergovernmental co-operation in youth matters. One of its duties will be to furnish technical assistance to voluntary youth organisations from the uncommitted countries. A large share of places at long courses will be reserved for Africans.
A symposium under the joint auspices of the Council of Europe and OECD, including specialists in technical assistance and youth experts, will be held for the purpose of determining the methods, role and scope of the assistance which young people themselves can give to development, and to ways and means of informing young people of new careers open to them in the field of technical assistance.
Until the European Youth Centre which it is proposed to establish at Strasbourg has been set up, it is intended to make use from 1963 of existing premises at a family holiday village for supplementary training courses of medium length for senior youth leaders for the developing countries.
(a) Exchanges of material
The Committee decided to intensify exchanges of equipment and publications between Unesco and the Council of Europe. It was also considered useful to establish appropriate collaboration between the two organisations in the matter of sociological and pedagogical research into the nature and extent of requirements in out-of-school education and improved ways and means of attracting and educating adults whose education was incomplete.
(b) Space for Youth
The Council of Europe will shortly set up a working party to co-operate in the work of the Space for Youth Foundation which is investigating possible stamping-grounds for young people in Western Europe.
Also likely to interest Unesco is a new field opened to the Council of Europe by the Consultative Assembly, which, in its Recommendation 284, advocated the institution of a permanent system of co-operation in the field of the protection of nature. In response to this recommendation, the Committee of Ministers has convened an ad hoc Committee of Experts to consider the desirability of such co-operation.
This Committee was unanimously in favour of European co-operation, to be implemented by a standing committee of experts, for the protection of nature, which would put in hand a programme of action covering the protection of wild life and natural resources and the creation of national and European parks and similar preserves, analyse and unify domestic laws with a view to drawing up conventions and a European charter and, finally, circulate information on the problem of the protection of nature.
Switzerland, Spain and Portugal would be invited to send observers. Close co-operation should also be established with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
In conclusion, mention should be made of another Consultative Assembly undertaking which, although still in an early stage in the Council of Europe, is a continuation of important work done by Unesco in connection with the protection of sites and could only be accomplished satisfactorily in close collaboration with that Organisation.
It is proposed to include on the Assembly agenda the question of the protection of centres containing monuments of recognised European interest. The Cultural Committee has been instructed to examine this question and is proposing that a study be undertaken by a group of experts.
(a) International Campaign to save the Monuments of Nubia
On two occasions, by adopting recommendations addressed to member countries, the Assembly has given its support to the International Campaign to save the Monuments of Nubia, (Recommendation 263 (1960) and Recommendation 302 (1961).
These two recommendations have given rise to action in the British, French, Italian and Federal German Parliaments, and led the Committee of Ministers to express the hope, in their circular letter of October 1961 to the Foreign Ministries, that Governments which had not already done so would give most urgent consideration to all means of providing additional concrete assistance to Unesco's action to save the monuments of Nubia.
(b) Application of Unesco Conventions
In January 1962 the Consultative Assembly adopted Recommendation 308 on the free circulation of educational materials which urges,in addition to ratification of the three Conventions drafted by the Customs Co-operation Council, that the Council for Cultural Co-operation consider how the Unesco Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials of 22nd November 1950 is applied in member States of the Council of Europe, and how current methods of giving effect to that Agreement may be improved.