Relations between Europe and the United States of America (General policy of the Council of Europe)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 30 and 31 January 1985 (26th and 27th Sittings) (seeDoc. 5328, report of the Political Affairs Committee, andDoc. 5332, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 31 January 1985 (27th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Recalling its earlier positions on the subject, and in particular its Resolutions 749 and 758 (1981), as well as
Resolution 826 (1984) on East-West relations ;
2. Bearing in mind the reports of its Political Affairs Committee (
Doc. 5328) and its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (
Doc. 5332) ;
3. Noting also the cultural dimension of the relations between Europe and North America, and resolving to hold a further debate on this aspect of the subject ;
4. Noting the results of the American elections on 6 November 1984 ;
5. Welcoming the contribution made by United States delegates to the first Strasbourg Conference on Parliamentary Democracy (4-6 October 1983), as well as the personal and bipartisan support publicly pledged by President Reagan before the British Parliament on 8 June 1982 ;
6. Noting that the recovery of the American economy should benefit the recovery of Europe, as long as protectionist temptations are resisted on both sides and further progress is made in the field of economic co-operation and trade liberalisation ;
7. Noting with regret that, notwithstanding the strong interdependence of their economies, the economic relations between Europe and the United States are marked by an increasing number of disputes ;
8. Believing that, as any slowdown of economic growth in the United States would have negative repercussions on the European and Third World economies, care must be taken not to aggravate this situation by protectionist tendencies ;
9. Concerned also at the tendency of the United States Administration to extend fiscal and other measures beyond the scope of its jurisdiction and to reduce its participation in international organisations active in the field of development cooperation, in particular those within the United Nations family ;
10. Believing that the principle of free trade should not be jeopardised by technical obstacles arising from sectoral interests or the influence of specialised government agencies ;
11. Recalling its past expressions of concern for the success of current efforts at Stockholm to build the confidence necessary to promote real progress in security and co-operation between participants in the CSCE process ;
12. Warmly welcoming the agreement of the United States and Soviet leaderships following the meeting at Foreign Minister level in Geneva (7-8 January 1985) to resume negotiations with the objective of working out effective agreements aimed at preventing an arms race in space and terminating it on earth, at limiting and reducing nuclear arms and at strengthening strategic stability ;
13. Reiterating its call that transatlantic contacts be intensified in order to improve mutual understanding of reciprocal problems and concerns,
14. Underlines once again the attachment which the United States of America and the member states of the Council of Europe should share to the ideals of pluralist parliamentary democracy and human rights, which places an obligation on them to support democratic regimes and political forces throughout the world, to respect the principles of international law and also to exploit to the full the possibilities offered by the Strasbourg Conference ;
15. Welcomes the adoption by the Committee of Ministers on 22 November 1984 of a resolution giving new impetus to Council of Europe action in the political field, while declaring readiness for more thorough exchanges of views between representatives of the Assembly and of the Committee of Ministers on political issues of mutual interest ;
16. Considers that relations with the United States constitute one such issue ;
17. Calls on the Council of Europe member states and the United States Government to coordinate better their economic and development co-operation policies, to encourage agreements between European and American firms with a view to improving technological co-operation, and to abstain from introducing new protectionist measures in their trade relations ;
18. Resolves to organise in the course of 1985 a visit by a delegation to seek to deepen the dialogue with the United States parliamentarians and Administration on questions of mutual interest especially the relationship between Europe and the United States and East-West relations.
