The Council of Europe
The general verdict on the first session of the Council of Europe last year was that, in view of the imperfections of its initial organisa- tion and the vagueness of its powers, it might have been worse. The general expectation of the second session, which begins in Strasbourg on Monday, is that, in view of the improvements made in its structure and the growing respect in which the Council is held, it should be a lot better. The awkward gap between the Committee of Ministers, which met on Wednesday to discuss the agenda and prepare a message to accompany its report on the year's work, has already been partially bridged. The fact that the message will be in the form of an explanation of the past actions of the Committee and a tentative statement of future policy will help to bridge it still further. The main constitutional problem facing the Council as a whole has been from the start that all real power resides with the Ministers, who have not seemed anxious to exercise it, while the Consultative Assembly has had insufficient formal means for turning its discussions into action. Possibly the Assembly may have to give further proofs of its sense of responsi- bility before it can hope to influence the Ministers by other means than persuasion without sanctions. It will certainly gain nothing by trying to run before it can walk. But it walked fairly steadily last time over some rather difficult ground, and it is gaining confidence.
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