Reply to the 24th annual report (1984) on the activities of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 2 October 1985 (18th Sitting) (see Doc. 5415, 24th annual report of EFTA, and Doc. 5454, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 2 October 1985 (18th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Having regard to the 24th annual report of the European Free Trade Association (
Doc. 5415) and the report of its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development in reply thereto (
Doc. 5454) ;
3. Congratulating EFTA on its 25th anniversary, and the establishment in this period of free trade in industrial products among its members and between the latter and the European Community, which has resulted in the establishment of a European free trade area comprising eighteen and as of 1 January 1986 nineteenEuropean countries ;
4. Welcoming in this context the recent initiative taken by the Finnish Government to make Finland a full member of EFTA ;
5. Concerned, however, at the fact that in these countries unemployment is still rising, and that Europe is gradually losing market shares in industrial trade to other highly industrialised nations, such as the United States of America and Japan, and that this trend is particularly serious in the sector of high technology ;
6. Welcoming the fact that the Joint Declaration adopted by the European Community-EFTA Ministerial Meeting of 9 April 1984 in Luxembourg aims at further consolidating the European free trade area as well as at strengthening co-operation beyond the 1973 free trade agreements between the Community and the EFTA countries ;
7. Also recalling the Visby Declaration of May 1984 in which EFTA governments decided to intensify the fight against unemployment, to increase consultations and exchanges of views on trade and economic questions, and to support a revitalisation and strengthening of the North-South dialogue ;
8. Stressing the fact that co-operation between the European Community and EFTA countries should give priority to the elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade and of border formalities, to the improvement and simplification of the rules of origin, and to the strengthening of co-operation in the fields of research and development, in particular high technology ;
9. Considering that European co-operation should take place as far as possible on a multilateral basis in the interest of all countries concerned rather than bilaterally, in order to avoid fragmentation of work and dispersion of effort, and welcoming in this respect the proposals formulated in the report of the Colombo Commission on future perspectives for European cooperation,
10. Invites the governments of the member states of EFTA and the European Community :
10.1 to make real progress in the elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade, in particular by eliminating frontier formalities, and the improvement and simplification of the rules of origin ;
10.2 to increase the accessibility of public contracts ;
10.3 to intensify their efforts to increase the competitiveness of European industry by strengthening co-operation in the fields of research and development, thereby making use of the appropriate programmes of the European Community and the Council of Europe ;
10.4 to envisage closer co-operation between members of the European Community, members of EFTA and other members of the Council of Europe in the light of the recommendations formulated by the Colombo Commission in its report on future perspectives for European cooperation on such questions as working conditions, social and consumer protection, the environment, etc. ;
10.5 to concert their positions in the preparation of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations in the framework of GATT and, at the same time, to promote the holding of an international conference on monetary co-operation with a view to improving the functioning of the international monetary system ;
10.6 to ensure that the enlargement of the European Community to Portugal and Spain does not lead to any discrimination against the EFTA countries with respect to products covered by their free trade agreements with the European Community ;
10.7 to follow up the establishment of a European free trade area for industrial products by the introduction of a harmonised system of regulations on minor imports and postal parcels of a non-commercial nature and the relaxation of border controls for individual travellers, so as to bring Europe closer to its citizens ;
10.8 to continue their efforts to combat unemployment in the light of Assembly
Recommendation 981 (1984), on employment in Europe ; ix. to work for a common European trade law system that is acceptable to all members of the European Community and EFTA.
