B 2. Explanatory Memorandum
1
1. The presentation of the First General
Report of the European Economic Community
to the Consultative Assembly marks an important
stage in the development of European affairs.
Over nearly ten years of its existence the Consultative
Assembly has encouraged six of the Member
States of the Council of Europe in their efforts
t o secure a more intensive integration than its
other Member States felt able to seek. The
Assembly supported the European Coal and
Steel Community, clearly recognising that this
Community was not designed to remain an isolated
development but was to be complemented
by Communities extending into wider spheres.
The Assembly has since been able to welcome
the creation of the more general Economic
Community, whose existence, in spite of certain
temporary difficulties which it may engender
for the European economic system, it continues to regard as a most significant achievement by
the forces striving for the unity of Europe.
2. The , High Authority of the Coal and
Steel Community has regularly presented to the
Consultative Assembly its annual reports, and
members of the High Authority have once a
year met with members of the Economic Committee
and answered questions put to them; the
Common Assembly has met jointly with the Consultative
Assembly; and the Secretariats at
Luxembourg and Strasbourg have maintained
close contact with each other. It is very much to
be hoped that at all these levels the relations of
the Economic Community with the Council of
Europe will be no less close than those of the
E.C.S.C. It is for this reason that the draft
Resolution calls for further forms of collaboration
with the E.E.C. such as joint meetings of the
'competent committees of the two Assemblies,
meetings between the Commission of the Economic
•Community and Committees of the Consultative
Assembly together with exchange of documents
on subjects of common interest and close contacts
between the Secretariats.
3. In its Report the Commission lays
special stress on its intention of giving the
European Parliamentary Assembly every facility
for its work of parliamentary supervision. The
Commission does not propose to have this control
confined to the annual presentation of a report
but proposes, whenever possible, to obtain the
opinion of the Parliamentary Assembly on this
or that question and to carry out any investigation
and to make any report for which it may
:ask. In particular, the Commission expresses
its determination to take advantage of the Treaty
provision which allows it to amend its proposals
in the light of the opinions expressed in the
Assembly as long as the Ministers have not
taken their decision. The Consultative Assembly
welcomes the spirit in which the Commission
approaches the political relationship between
a European executive and its Assembly, which
i t regards as a healthy model for the executive
and parliamentary organs of the future European
Economic Association.
4. The Commission outlines a number of
comparative studies of economic, financial and
legal questions in each of its Member States,
which, quite apart from providing new data
on the countries of the Six themselves, may well
serve as a guide for later studies covering the other countries of Europe as well, and thereby
contribute to the effectiveness of economic policy
in Europe as a whole.
5. The Social Committee of the Consultative
Assembly has for some time been interesting itself
in the social aspect of problems of regional economic
development. A year ago i t set up a study
group, which has been working intensively in
this field. The European Commission makes
a concrete suggestion in this connection—that
" research with a view to the drawing of a
fairly detailed map of regions of economic development
in Europe, and of their potential, would
be of particular value ". Such maps are at
present being drawn at the Institute of Sociography
in Frankfurt by Professor Neundorfer, working
on the initiative of the Social Committee. This
compilation Social and Economic Atlas of the
Regions of Europe is expected to be completed
by the summer of 1959
Note.
6. In connection not only with problems
of regional economic development, but also
with the standardisation of national economic
and financial data, it is important for Member
States of the Council of Europe not belonging
to the Six t h a t there should be appropriate liaison
with the O.E.E.C. This will ensure that in a
future European Economic Association work by
both bodies (in such matters as the economic
development of Southern Europe, for example)
is harmonised in the general interest.
7. The European Commission explicitly mentions
a further initiative taken by the Council
of Europe: the European Code of Social Security
and its Protocol. This Code lays down standards
for nine branches of social security: medical
care and sickness, unemployment, old age, employment
injury, family, maternity, invalidity and
survivors' benefits. These standards apply to
the conditions for obtaining benefits as well as
to the percentages of the population to be covered
and to the amount and duration of benefits.
The Code is based on International Labour Convention
No. 102 relating to minimum standards
of social security, but implies somewhat stricter
obligations. The Protocol embodies standards
considerably higher than those of the Code,
in order to provide a stimulus for further development
even in countries where social security has
already reached a high level. Both texts are complete from the technical point of view, but
the question of their final adoption is still before
the Committee of Ministers.
8. In the section of the Report concerned
with agriculture the Commission makes plain
t h e difficult and delicate nature of its task of
helping to integrate agriculture into the common
field of activities. As Assembly Representatives
know, the problem of agriculture in a European
Economic Association is no less delicate, and
we appreciate the spirit in which the Commission
appears to be approaching this problem.
9. The Commission approaches the problem
of the association of overseas countries
and territories which are constitutionally linked
with the Member States of the Common Market
very much in the spirit by which the Assembly has
been inspired ever since 1949, and which gave
rise, first, to the Strasbourg Plan and then to
t h e report of the Group of Experts on the Development
of Africa, set up in accordance with
Order No. 105. The Assembly has always taken
t h e view that it was a European responsibility
t o ensure to the populations of these countries
the greatest possible progress in all fields. It
is to be hoped that in the detailed implementat
i o n of the sections of the Treaty dealing with
these industrially less developed countries the
interests of the overseas peoples involved will
always be regarded as paramount. The personal
contact established between the Commission and
those responsible for the political and economic
life of these countries would seem a good augury
in this respect.
10. A specially difficult task which the
executives of the three Communities have to
;solve is that of collaboration between themselves
;and avoiding possible duplication of work. In
matters such as transport, for example, there
i s a danger of such duplication as between the
JE.C.S.C. and the E.E.C. Moreover, if a European
Economic Association is set up, the task of
<coIlaboration on a wider scale, extending to a
body like the E.C.M.T., makes it essential that
satisfactory arrangements be made, in the first
place among the institutions of the Six. A paragraph
to this effect is therefore included in the
draft Resolution.
11. The Commission denies any intention
of isolating the Six from the rest of the world or of provoking a division of Europe and solemnly
confirms the pledges to wider international
solidarity which are contained in Articles 18,
110 and 234 of the Rome Treaty. The Commission
acknowledges the importance of strengthening
the political unity of the free world as a whole
even while it is pursuing its own economic aims
and recognises the vital economic as well as
political importance of finding a speedy solution
to the problems t h a t have arisen for other countries
as a result of t he Community's establishment.
12. In this connection the Commission
touches upon two more specific points which are
also relevant to the negotiations that have
been carried on between the Six and the other
OEEC countries. The establishment of a common
external tariff, albeit on t h e surface a mechanical
operation, becomes in fact one of economic
judgement when some 20,000 items which figure
in the component tariffs must be re-classified
into some 6 or 7 thousand. It is clear t h a t here,
as in the case of those goods on which the tariff
is to be fixed by mutual agreement rather than
as an arithmetic average, more or less restrictive
solutions may be adopted. The Consultative
Assembly hopes that the Commission will be
able to ensure these negotiations primary for
the principles which it has enunciated.
13. The Commission is at present preparing
directives on the movement of goods traded
without payment of customs duties between
Member States. The problem of a possible
re-export of such goods from one Member State
to another in processed or unprocessed form,
naturally, needs to be borne in mind until such
time as the Six have established a common
external tariff. Until such time the Common
Market will in fact be a free trade area as far as
these goods are concerned. The methods used
by the Commission in dealing with this problem
within the Common Market may well provide
valuable indications on how the problem may be
tackled in a wider European Economic Association.
14. The Commission is emphatic upon its
efforts to secure a compromise both between the
six Member States of the Community and between
the Community and the other Member States
of O.E.E.C. It has done appreciable work in this
field. The Assembly is to give its views in
another resolution on the substantive problems
involved. It remains, in the present resolution,
to thank the Commission for its work and to
hope that it will lead to a successful conclusion
of these negotiations.
