Relations between Western Europe and the USA (General policy of the Council of Europe)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 18 and 19 May 1972 (6th and 7th Sittings) (see Doc. 3127, report of the Political Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 19 May 1972 (7th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Noting that in the present rapidly changing international situation, there is uncertainty and questioning over the future of relations between Western Europe and the United States, and that, as a result of the monetary crisis and growing friction in the economic field, these relations have deteriorated,
2. Hopes that the United States, on the basis of a long-term political commitment to maintaining the freedom of Western Europe, will keep its forces in Europe and continue to support the cause of European unity ;
3. Affirms on the other hand that European Members of the Atlantic Alliance should increasingly share the responsibility for decisions and the burden of the common defence, and that Western Europe as a whole ought to play a more important role in ensuring the functioning of the international monetary and trading systems ;
4. Considers therefore that rapid and substantial progress by the enlarged Community towards economic, monetary and political union is essential if Western Europe is to become a more valid and valued partner of the United States ;
5. Stresses that the forthcoming summit meeting of the Ten should provide a new impetus to European integration by defining the role and tasks of the enlarged Community and its external policies, which hinge on the basis of the relationship with the United States ;
6. Considers that the European Members of the Atlantic Alliance and the United States have reached the point where they can either resign themselves to a further deterioration of their relations or establish new forms of partnership for tackling issues which make European unity and closer Atlantic co-operation all the more necessary, including the following :
a the mechanisms for consultation and co-ordination of policies within the Atlantic Alliance must be strengthened in preparation for a conference on European security and co-operation, and negotiations on mutual and balanced force reductions, which must be closely linked together and which should be actively pursued in the framework of a general policy of East-West detente ;
b Western Europe, the United States and Japan must exercise their joint responsibilities for the reform of the international monetary and trading systems in order to avoid the drift towards a world of restrictions and recurrent monetary crises ;
c the economic, trading and financial interests of the developing countries must be taken into account in this process, and industrialised countries should establish closer co-ordination of their development aid policies ;
7. Suggests that governments and parliaments on both sides of the Atlantic should consider possibilities for establishing a permanent high-level dialogue between Western Europe, and in particular the enlarged Community, and the United States, by strengthening existing West European and Atlantic institutions.
