Council of Europe

The third part of the eleventh ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly was opened on January 18, 1960, with a tribute to its President, Mr. John Edward, who had died at Strasbourg on November 23, 1959. At the onset, the Assembly unanimously adopted a motion against anti Semitic outbreaks presented by the Political Committee, which a delegation from the Israeli parliament gratefully acknowledged. A motion to adjourn the election of the President until the opening of the next session was also adopted. Following presentation of a report on the activities of the Bureau and Standing Committee, the second supplementary report to the tenth report of the Committee of Ministers was presented by its chairman, Mr. Pierre Wigny, Belgian Foreign Minister. He noted that the Assembly had been disturbed over the fact that the Council of Europe was no longer fulfilling an adequate role, and stressed the importance of the exchanges of views which the Committee of Ministers had decided could take place at the request of any member state. In the economic sphere he called attention to recent moves toward economic coordination, and, before concluding, asked the Assembly to examine further both the question of Eurafrican relations and that of rationalization of European institutions.