General policy of the Council of Europe

Resolution 264 (1963)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 23rd and 24th September 1963 (14th, 15th and 16th Sittings) (see Doc. 1671, Resolution submitted by the Political Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 24th September 1963 (16th Sitting).

1. The Assembly,

2. Considering that the present state of affairs both in Europe and in the Atlantic alliance is unsatisfactory,

3. Expresses its hope that all the European Governments and Parliaments concerned will adopt the following principles and aims as being those of their foreign policy :

a to preserve and develop the institutions and the objectives of the European Communities according to the letter and the spirit of the Treaties of Rome and of Paris ;

b to reaffirm that the European institutions are open to the accession or association of all those member States of the Council of Europe which are willing to accede to them or become associated with them under the terms of the Treaties, and that no application presented by Members of the Council of Europe may be rejected for reasons other than those foreseen in the Treaties themselves ;

c to neglect no initiative that would facilitate the accession of the United Kingdom and other member States of the Council of Europe to the European Communities before 1966 ;

d to increase the responsibilities of Europe in the formulation and direction of Atlantic policy in all its aspects by means of the development of common European political institutions and not by means of autonomous national action ;

e to study the implications of Atlantic partnership in close contact with the United States and Canada, in order to reconsider the responsibilities of the peoples on both sides of the Atlantic ;

f to welcome the Moscow test ban treaty and to take every opportunity of seeking the conclusion of further arrangements with the Soviet Union without prejudicing the re-establishment of German unity ;

4. And, accordingly, proposes the following short-term objectives :

a to ensure a reasonable balance between the interests of agriculture within the European Economic Community and the interests of world trade, which will make possible both the development of a common agricultural system in the Common Market and the conclusion of satisfactory arrangements with the United States and the other countries taking part in the GATT tariff negotiations of 1964, the one not to be sacrificed to the other ;

b to restore confidence in the European Communities and their dynamism by giving their institutions greater responsibility and by fully supporting their efforts to carry out, in the current year, the Working Programme for 1963 ;

c to continue the development of the European Free Trade Association in accordance with the provisions of the Stockholm Convention so as to keep it in step with that of the Communities ;

d to encourage all those contacts and rapprochements that will direct the efforts both of the European Communities and of the European Free Trade Association towards the creation of as wide a European economic grouping as possible ;

e to continue negotiations with the United States and Canada in order to increase Europe's share of responsibility in the co-ordination of Atlantic policy in all its aspects.