The Assembly,
Considering that the effects, both present and future, of the European Coal and Steel Community on certain population centres in Member States, possibly entailing the partial or total disappearance of the principal activities of certain municipalities and sometimes of whole regions, the depopulation of certain mining areas, the short or long-term unemployment of large sections of their population and, finally, the influx into the more productive areas of fresh manpower, give rise to difficult problems of adjustment and housing;
Considering how important and arduous are the new tasks confronting, either now or in the future, local authorities in such areas, since they must face up to certain problems arising within the sphere of their concern and affecting those whose interests they represent, whether it is a question of promoting new forms of economic activity in conformity with Article 56 (b) of the Treaty establishing the E. C. S. C., of assisting people temporarily deprived of employment and necessarily undergoing vocational re-training or resolved to settle down elsewhere, or, finally, of solving the housing difficulties caused by the influx of new population ;
Believing that, whereas coal and steel problems in member countries of E. C. S. C. are the proper province of the organs of the Community, the consequences of the activities of E. C. S. C. on the life, structure and duties of European municipalities fall within the competence of the Council of Europe, which, by the establishment of the Special Committee on Municipal and Regional Questions, is the sole political body in Europe able usefully to deal with local problems resulting from the operation of European institutions ;
Being convinced that the experiment represented by the European Coal and Steel Community is of major importance for the future unification of the fifteen member counties, and being desirous that this first experiment shall not have the effect of encouraging certain present-day tendencies towards centralisation and concentration which run counter to the essential characteristics of Western civilisation, based as it is on local self-government and the diversity and harmonious geographical distribution of all forms of activity ;
Desirous that, within the scope of this new institution, local authorities may profitably exercise their special function as a convenient and authoritative intermediary between man and mechanised industry, particularly by intervening with all the deliberation and understanding necessitated by such delicate matters as the transfer of population, employment or readaptation ;
Finding that the Statute of the E. C. S. C., subject to certain conditions, does not preclude such intervention by local authorities, which might well play a useful part in the operation of the Community, for instance in the housing of coal and steel workers, in their readaptation, in providing assistance to those who agree to be transferred to other regions, or in setting up new industries capable of absorbing local workers who have become unemployed ;
Believing that it is primarily a matter for representatives of local communities, whose principal industries, whether mines or steel works, may cease operation or curtail their activities to an alarming extent as a result of measures taken by the High Authority, to organise, promote and direct, in their area, new activities capable of assuring not only the productive re-employment of local workers under the conditions laid down in Article 56 of the treaty setting up the E. C. S. C., but also the economic survival of their region, and that the Governments concerned, as well as the High Authority, should draw up plans for new industries with due regard to the views of the local authorities ;
Considering that the re-adaptation of workers unemployed as the result of the introduction of new processes or equipment or of methods of concentration must be closely harmonised with local conditions, in particular with available employment in other industries in the area, and that the High Authority, subject to the agreement of the Council of Ministers of E. C. S. C. may, in the words of its own members speaking to the Committee on Social Questions of the Consultative Assembly on 29th January, 1954, co-operate with local authorities in the organisation and financing of vocational training centers ;
Bearing in mind that the High Authority of the E. C. S. C., according to the statements of its Members, in particular before the Social Affairs Committee of the Common Assembly on 7th January, 1954, so far as workers' housing is concerned, is endeavouring in the various member countries to encourage the construction of dwellings, and, further, recalling statements by the same Members of the High Authority before the Committee on Social Questions of the Consultative Assembly on 29th January, 1954, in accordance with which, subject to the unanimous concurrence of the Council of Ministers, as stipulated in Article 54 (paragraph 2) of the treaty setting up the E. C. S. C., the High Authority may assist in financing works and installations undertaken by local authorities and in the housing of workers in the eoal and steel industries ;
Convinced that effective assistance to transferred workers could be provided by local authorities, which , in order to solve the delicate problems of adjustment and avoid the dangers attendant upon the uprooting of workers from their normal environment, could establish close and unbroken contacts and, indeed, many ties of friendship between native and adoptive municipalities or regions, by application of the "pairing " system ;
Firmly supporting, in general, the principle that no measure which commits a local authority should be taken by any central Government without prior consultation with the representatives of that authority,
Recommends that the Committee of Ministers should obtain the assurance of the Governments concerned that they will :