The Assembly,
Having taken formal note of the Report of the Legal Committee on current legal and administrative provisions and the present status of national minorities in the Member States of the Council of Europe (Doc. 1002) ;
Noting with interest that the status of the national minorities in question appears on the whole to be satisfactory ;
Considering that, wherever that status is giving rise, or may in the future give rise, to disputes between two or more Member States, these States should try to compose their differences in the spirit of the Statute of the Council of Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights and any other international legal undertakings contracted by them,
Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite those Member Governments between whom disputes exist, or may in the future arise, concerning the status of national minorities, to seek a satisfactory settlement through bilateral negotiations with due respect for the supremacy of the law, or, should these negotiations fail, by the application of the procedure laid down in the European Convention for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes.