- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- See Doc. 4916, report of the Political Affairs Committee. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 2 July 1982.
- Thesaurus
1. Expressing satisfaction at the relations it had been able to establish over the years with the parliaments of democratic states which are not members of the Council of Europe ;
2. Appreciating more particularly the active presence of parliamentary delegations from Australia, Canada, the United States, Finland, Japan and New Zealand at the debates on the annual OECD reports, and their occasional attendance at other Assembly debates ;
3. Wishing to intensify these relations, in order :
a to enable these delegations to take an even greater part in the debates on OECD activities ;
b to take advantage of the presence of these delegations in Strasbourg to discuss with them and, where appropriate, adopt a common stand on the political problems facing all democratic countries ;
4. Appreciative of the words of encouragement addressed to it, on 2 October 1981, by the Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, who, after presenting the communication from the Committee of Ministers, urged a more outward-looking attitude to democracies in other parts of the world ;
5. Welcoming the first favourable reactions to the soundings made by the President of the Assembly, both among the chairmen of the parliamentary delegations from non-member countries attending the debates on OECD activities and among the governments of several member and non-member states ;
6. Noting the intention of its Political Affairs Committee to organise, in association with the Legal Affairs Committee, a colloquy on the concept of democracy by the end of 1982,
7. Decides to hold, during the second part of its 35th Session (September-October 1983), a "Strasbourg Conference" on a limited number of topical political subjects, which the parliamentary delegations from those OECD member states which are not members of the Council of Europe will be invited to attend on an equal footing ;
8. Instructs its Political Affairs Committee, jointly with its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, to organise the conference, to choose the topics for it in consultation with the President of the Assembly and the Bureau, and to prepare introductory papers ;
9. Instructs its President to pursue his contacts with all the circles concerned, and notably with the parliaments of the non-member states, with a view to securing as wide a participation as possible in the conference and in the preparatory arrangements.
