The Assembly,
Recalling the Protocol of 18th April 1951 concerning relations between the European Coal and Steel Community and the Council of Europe which states that the High Contracting Parties are
"fully aware of the need to establish ties as close as possible between the European Coal and Steel Community and the Council of Europe",
and particularly Article 6 of the Protocol, reading :
"Agreements between the Community and the Council of Europe may, among other things, provide for any other type of mutual assistance and collaboration between the two organisations, and indicate the appropriate forms thereof" ;
Recalling Resolution (57) 27 of the Committee of Ministers, dated December 1957, in which the Committee expresses the wish
"that as soon as the institutions of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community are set up, close relations should be established between the Assemblies of the Council of Europe and the Communities of the Six and, in general, between the Council of Europe on the one hand, and the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community on the other" ;
Recalling Article 230 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and the Arrangement of 18th August 1959 between the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the Commission of the European Economic Community ;
Having regard to the importance of the local effects of the activities of the Communities of the Six for the authorities in certain regions and municipalities in their member countries ;
Recalling its Recommendations 76 (1955) and 141 (1957) on the local effects of the activities of the European Coal and Steel Community ;
Considering Resolution 25 (1962) of the European Conference of Local Authorities on the development and reconversion projects envisaged by the European Communities, Opinion No. 2 (1958) of the Conference on the local effects of the European Coal and Steel Community, Resolution 2 (1957) of the Conference inviting local authorities to submit programmes for new activities to the High Authority and to the Governments concerned, and Opinions Nos 7 and 8 (1958) of the Conference on the local effects of the European Economic Community and of the European Coal and Steel Community ;
Having regard to the second paragraph of Article 1(b) of the Charter of the European Conference of Local Authorities ;
Having noted the opinion of the Economic Committee,
I
Congratulates the members of the former Conference Committee on relations with the European Communities (known as the Six-Country Committee) for their achievements during their four years of existence ;
Regrets the disbanding of the Committee in pursuance of the Charter granted to the Conference by the Committee of Ministers on 13th September 1961 ;
Recalls its earlier recommendations on the need for consultation by Local Authorities in all spheres where the policy of the European institutions directly affects local life and involves the responsibility and the functions of regional or communal authorities;
Recommends that the Committee of Ministers reconsider the re-constitution of the Six-Country Committee by introducing provisions into the Charter of the Conference to allow the continuation of the activities and contacts undertaken by the Committee and also the use of the Conference by the Communities of the Six for consultation with the local authorities concerned ;
II
Stresses particularly, for the attention of the "Intergroup" of the European Parliament, the following recommendations of the European Conference of Local Authorities which are fully supported by the Assembly and described in detail in the Report of the Committee on Local Authorities (Doc. 1531) :
conversion and the creation of new activities,
vocational readjustment,
social assistance for workers required to change their employment,
special assistance for migrant workers in areas of origin and new places of residence,
regional planning, provision of public utilities and development,
vocational training and general education,
house-building and improvement of housing conditions.
2. Granting local authorities the right to financial assistance attributed by the European institutions - European Investment Bank, High Authority, Social Fund, etc. - to various corporate bodies under private or public law, in the fields listed above, in accordance with the Treaties establishing the ECSC and the EEC ;
3. Implementation of an information programme on local authorities and association of the latter with the work of informing public opinion in general, and local populations in particular, of the European Communities and their activities :
4. Application of the principle that regional policy is first and foremost the concern of local communities and their authorities, which is an essential condition of the exercise of proper democratic control on local economic life ;
Similarly, consultation of representatives of regional and municipal communities in the member countries by organs of the Community competent in regional policy ;
5. Campaign to prevent the flow of people to the large towns and industrial areas: priority of the principle of conversion and utilisation of man-power on the spot over that of geographic mobility.