European economic problems
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 27 September 1968 (18th Sitting) (seeDoc. 2445, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 27 September 1968 (18th Sitting).
TThe Assembly,
1. The Assembly,
2. Noting that for the second time in four years a member state of one of the two European economic groups has applied unilateral import restrictions and export rebates to deal with a serious balance-of-payment crisis ;
3. Emphasising that only the strengthening and widening of European economic integration on the basis of the Treaty of Rome can make such crises unlikely in the future ;
4. Drawing attention to the necessity to complete the abolition of customs duties by the harmonisation of tax systems and rates ;
5. Urging governments to give sympathetic consideration to all proposals in EEC or elsewhere to allow private individuals to import goods up to a stated amount free of tax and customs duty ;
6. Recognising that a return to general monetary stability depends in the first place on the action taken by the reserve currency countries, but also on the willingness and ability of certain EEC countries to maintain an expansionary demand policy and to stimulate the outflow of long-term capital ;
7. Welcoming the Basle stand-by agreement of July 1968 as a first step towards an international solution of the problem of sterling balances ;
8. Observing with regret that following the second French veto, the opening of negotiations between EEC and the applicant states for the enlargement of the Communities appears to be blocked for the time being ;
9. Considering that this deadlock should not be allowed to prevent all progress on the wider European front during the intervening period ;
10. Taking account of the proposals made by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe for the co-ordination of the activities of all international organisations in Europe with a view to a concerted attempt to reduce the technological gap between Europe and the United States ;
11. Considering that, in all fields not covered by the Treaty of Rome, efforts should be made by all interested European governments to achieve as large a measure of integration as possible,
12. Decides to undertake a survey of the state of European integration with special reference to those fields of activity covered by the Treaty of Rome, with a view to distinguishing those fields where the process of integration could be applied to the whole of Western Europe, inter alia through the intergovernmental machinery of the Council of Europe ;
13. Instructs accordingly its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development to undertake a preliminary survey and to draw up a medium-term strategy for European integration in consultation with other interested committees.
