Extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet
'Council of Europe: Ireland's participation in establishment of '
(GC 5/87) (Item 4) (S14455)

Following consideration of a memorandum dated the 27th April, 1949, submitted by the Acting Minister for External Affairs,¹ relative to the establishment of the Council of Europe, approval was given to the proposals of the Acting Minister

1. that Ireland should be represented, by the Minister for External Affairs, at a Conference of Foreign Ministers, due to meet in London on the 3rd May, 1949, to consider certain documents relating to the establishment of the Council;
2. that the Minister should be authorised to sign, in the terms set out in the enclosure to the memorandum, the draft Agreement setting up a Preparatory Commission to make the necessary arrangements for the first meetings of the constituent bodies of the Council, namely, the Committee of Ministers and the Consultative Assembly; and
3. that the Minister should be authorised to sign, subject to ratification, the draft Statute of the Council of Europe in the terms set out in the enclosure to the memorandum, on the understanding that he would endeavour to have the points still to be agreed upon decided by the Conference in the sense most in accord with Ireland's general policy and outlook and that he would refer to the Government again if the Conference should propose to make any change in the draft Statute which would materially alter its character, or the burden of its obligations, from Ireland's point of view.