§ Dame Joan Vickersasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the Government's policy towards the proposals made by the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe on European co-operation between municipal and regional authorities in general, and in particular towards a convention on European co-operation between local authorities and towards the appointment, on a permanent basis, of a Committee on Co-operation in Municipal and Regional Matters.
§ Mr. LuardThe proposals of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, on co-operation in general between European municipal and regional authorities, will be on the agenda of the next meeting of the Joint Committee of Ministers' Deputies and Representatives of the Assembly. Interested Departments are giving sympathetic consideration to their implications. The proposal for a convention on Euro-446W pean co-operation between local authorities no longer forms part of the Council's intergovernmental programme of work. In answer to the last part of the question, it has been decided unanimously by Ministers' Deputies that the Committee on Co-operation in Municipal and Regional matters should be put on a permanent basis. Her Majesty's Government support this.