Reply to the First Report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations

Resolution 176 (1960)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 27th and 28th April 1960 (5th and 6th Sittings) (see Docs. 1100Docs. 1100, First Report of F A O and Doc. 1122, Report of the Committee on Agriculture). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28th April I960 (6th Sitting).

1. The Assembly thanks the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (F A O) for the transmission of its First Report to the Council of Europe and welcomes the arrangement according to which similar reports on the activities of the F A O henceforth will be submitted to the Consultative Assembly on a regular biennial basis.

2. The Assembly is well aware of the fact that the activities of F A O are only partly devoted to European problems and essentially deal with questions of food and agriculture on a world-wide scale. It is convinced, however, that it is impossible today to achieve genuine and lasting economic and social welfare in Europe without finding a solution to the problems prevailing in other parts of the world and that European States therefore, in formulating their agricultural policies, must take into consideration the interests of other countries. It believes, therefore, that the closer contacts between the F A O and the Council of Europe which have now been established will be of benefit to both Organisations in their work for economic and social progress which it is their declared aim to further.

3. The Assembly has taken note of the highly interesting description and interpretation of the world food and agricultural situation contained in Bart 1 of the Report.

4. In particular, the Assembly agrees that the existing disparity between agricultural surplus production in some regions of the world and the continuing under-nourishment and malnutrition in others is the key problem in the world agricultural economy and one which Europe cannot afford to disregard if it wants to abide by its ideals and contribute to a well-balanced world economy-It believes that the F A O is the most appropriate body for the co-ordination of efforts in this field, inasmuch as it already has worked out generally agreed principles of surplus disposal, and declares its interest in giving support to the work of the F A O in this field. It also welcomes the inquiries being made by F A O into price support and market stabilisation measures and hopes that the principles aiming at mitigating the harmful effects of such measures which it is elaborating will receive governmental approval.

5. The Assembly welcomes the Freedom-from-Hunger Campaign launched by the F A O as a means of alerting public opinion on the urgency of the problem of under-nourishment; it gives its full endorsement to this initiative and recalls that it has already given its support to the F A 0 World Seed Campaign (Recommendation 218).

6. The Assembly shares the FAO's concern about the adverse terms of trade and balance of payments difficulties of agricultural exporters and believes that it is also in the long-term interest of the European economy that the terms of trade of underdeveloped countries be improved. It realises that solutions must be sought along the lines suggested in the Report -stabilisation and expansion of primary product markets and industrial development in under-developed countries, but by formulas that are fair to all parties; and requests the F A O to continue its studies of this important problem.

7. The Assembly welcomes F A O 's Mediterranean Development Project and recalls its own Recommendations for improving economic conditions in this region: Recommendation 91 (1955) on the economic development of Southern Europe; Recommendation 121 (1957) on the resettlement of refugees and surplus agricultural workers; Recommendation 135 (1957) on the forestry situation in Europe ; and Recommendation 226 (1960) on the establishment of an agronomic centre of university standard for the Mediterranean areas of Europe. It recognises the dangers of an excessive discrepancy in income and living standards between Southern Europe and the rest of the Continent, and notes with satisfaction that F A O's approach to this problem constitutes a new departure, taking into account, as it does, every possible aspect of economic, climatic, technical and social conditions in the countries and sub-regions in question.

8. The Assembly thanks the F A O for the clear outline of its technical activities contained in Part II of the Report and congratulates it on the important improvements of statistical work it has achieved.

9. The Assembly approves the initiative taken by F A O in calling once a year a conference of organisations concerned with agricultural problems in Europe in order to co-ordinate their programmes with a view to eliminating duplication of effort and promoting the best use of resources. The Assembly takes note with great interest of F A O 's efforts to increase the productivity of European agriculture through improved methods of animal and vegetable production, through land and water development, afforestation, and animal and plant protection, as well as its activities relating to sea and inland water fisheries. It also expresses its interest in the F A O 's work on the establishment and strengthening of advisory services for agriculture and on means of providing help to small farmers in order to increase their real income.

10. The Assembly draws the attention of F A O to the draft European Social Charter which, as amended by the Consultative Assembly, provides for the participation of F A O in the Committee of Experts to be set up with the purpose of supervising the implementation of the Charter.

11. The Assembly welcomes the F A O's work on nutrition and trusts that comprehensive studies on food consumption developments in all their aspects will allow a better assessment of food requirements in the future and thus be of considerable importance in formulating the agricultural policies of member States or groups of States. It also considers the studies made by F A O in this field to be of great importance in regard to improvement in diets.

12. The Assembly warmly congratulates the F A O on the important results hitherto achieved and requests the Secretariat of the Council of Europe to investigate, together with F.A.O. and in liason with O E E C, ways and means by which the Consultative Assembly could contribute further to the work of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.