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European Defence

Recommendation 53 (1950)

Author(s):
Parliamentary Assembly
Origin
Adopted 24th November 1950, at the conclusion of the Debate on the Third Report of the Committee on General Affairs (see Doc. AS (2) 151, Report).Number voting: 109, In favour: 83, Against: 7, Abstentions: 19.

The Assembly,

Recalling its Recommendation AS (2) 52 of 11th August 1950 (no 5 of the printed Compilation) in the following terms :

"The Assembly,
in order to express its devotion to the maintenance of peace and its resolve to sustain the action of the Security Council of the United. Nations in defence of peaceful peoples against aggression, calls for the immediate creation of a unified European Army, under the authority of a European Minister of Defence, subject to proper European democratic control and acting in full co-operation with the United States and Canada."
Having taken note of the statement made to it by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs on the subject of the creation of a European Army;

1. Welcomes the decision of the North Atlantic Treaty Powers to form a joint Atlantic Force for the defence of Western Europe, with the full participation of the United States and Canada;
2. Considers that the defence of a territory, which includes Western Germany, naturally requires German participation, but that this only conceivable within the framework of a permanent European Defence organisation ;
3. Emphasises the importance of the principle enunciated in the statement of the French Minister for Foreign Affairs that no discrimination must be made between the participating powers ;
4. Reaffirms the necessity for the creation of a European Army, in accordance with the Assembly's Recommendation of 11th August ; and
5. Urges the Governments concerned to overcome the differences which exist between them on the problems of military and political structure, so that without delay the European Army may make its contribution to the Atlantic Force.