Expressing the opinion of the Consultative Assembly on the Reports of the High Authority of the Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- This Resolution was
adopted by the Assemblyat its eleventh Sitting (see Doc. 156, Reports
of the Committees on General Affairs, Economic Questions and Social
Questions).
- Thesaurus
SECTION I
Political Aspects
1. On the 10th February, 1953, the European Coal and
Steel Community declared open, as between its six Member States,
a common market in coal and coke, iron ore and scrap : on the 1st
May, 1953, this common market was extended to include steel. There
is perhaps no need to emphasise once again the revolutionary character
of this development. The Report which the High Authority of the
E. C. S. C. has submitted to the Common Assembly of the Community,
and which has been tabled for consideration in the Consultative Assembly
of the Council of Europe, represents in itself a landmark in the
history of government of the peoples of Europe. For the first time
a European Executive endowed with supranational powers has submitted
a report on its activities to the judgment of a European parliament,
whose members, although indirectly elected by their national Parliaments
acting as electoral colleges, sit and exercise their judgment as
Europeans and not as the representatives of national or local interests.
2. The Consultative Assembly approves the spirit in which the
High Authority has sought to direct its activities. The High Authority
has made a noteworthy effort to forestall any accusation that it
is an example of an irresponsible technocracy by maintaining contact
at every stage with the Special Council of Ministers, the Committees
of the Common Assembly, and the Consultative Committee composed
of representatives of producers, workers and consumers. In addition,
it has established relations, which allow for mutual consultation and
collaboration, with a number of individual States which are not
Members of the Community, and with the organisations whose purpose
it is to increase unity of action among all the States of Western
Europe- with O. E. E. C., and with the Council of Europe, whose
relations with the Community are governed by a Special Protocol
to the Treaty instituting the Community, in accordance with the
terms of which the present Report has been submitted to the Consultative
Assembly.
3. The High Authority can thus claim that its first decisions
and the way in which it has arrived at their adoption justify the
statement made in the Report
Note that
: "The Community neither is nor intends to be autarkic or restricted
".
4. The Consultative Assembly fully endorses the desire of the
Common Assembly to be requested for its opinion as a parliamentary
body with regard to the broad lines of the High Authority's policy
before the High Authority is definitely committed, and hopes that
the High Authority will take steps to comply with this request.
5. The Consultative Assembly recalls with pleasure that the Council
of Europe itself played no small part in bringing the negotiations
for the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community to
a successful conclusion. The Consultative Assembly believes that,
as spokesmen of all the Members of the Council of Europe, it can
continue to contribute materially to the success of the Community.
The bilateral arrangements governing the relations between the High
Authority and certain individual States, Members of the Council
of Europe, are, unquestionably, not only of the greatest importance
but, in fact, essential in the best interests of both parties. However,
the matters which will be dealt with in accordance with those arrangements
will be concerned with the interaction of the policy of the High
Authority and of the national policy of the States concerned, It
is only through the Council of Europe that the High. Authority can
obtain a synthesis of the views of these States with regard to its
activities, the expression of their common opinion reached through
the give-and-take of discussion between their representatives in
the Committee of Ministers and the Consultative Assembly.
6. The Consultative Assembly recognises at the same time that
the example of the Community will provide a powerful stimulus to
the efforts which, the Council of Europe will pursue with determination
to achieve a closer unity within the less homogeneous groupign of
its Members in accordance with the more general terms of its Statute.
In the campaign to unite Europe there is a need for both organisations.
SECTION II
Economic Aspects
7. The Consultative Assembly congratulates the High
Authority on its achievement in opening the common market in coal
and steel with so little dislocation to the economies of tho Member
States of the Community. It is true that the task of the High Authority
was made easier by the general tendency towards a better balance between
supply and demand which has recently become evident in the coal
and steel markets, both inside and outside the Community. This tendency
has, however, been notably strengthened by the measures adopted
by the High Authority and by the Member Governments of the Community
with the object of abolishing discriminatory practices within the
Community. By such measures the Community has taken the first steps towards
the realisation of the aim underlying the Treaty, namely the establishment
of a market situation favourable to the development of competitive
conditions and to an increase in productivity inside the Community.
8. During the first months following the opening of the common
markets for coal and steel, the High Authority had to deal primarily
with the solution of the internal problems of the Community, namely
those concerned with the quantitative restrictions, customs duties,
subsidies and other discriminatory measures, the new price levels
for iron ore, coal, scrap and steel, the perequation levies, turn-over
taxes and transport rotes. The repercussions on the economies of
other countries of the measures taken by the High Authority in these matters
will gradually become apparent, and will call for an early definition
of the policy of the Member Governments of the Community, as well
as of the Community as a whole, in their relations with other countries.
9. In order that trade in coal and steel products between Member
States of the Community and other countries may be maintained and
expanded, it is of importance to define in what conditions and to
what extent the establishment of the common market may call for
intervention on the part of the High Authority in the trade agreements
between Member States of the Community and other countries. Under
Article 75 of the Treaty, Member Governments are required to communicate
their trade agreements to the High Authority, which may make recommendations
for their modification. Trade in the commodities mentioned may also
be affected by the application of Articles 58 and 59, which authorise
action by the High Authority in cases of a decline in demand or
of a serious shortage of supply. The Member States of the Community,
the third parties which enter into contractual arrangements with
the Member States, as also individual enterprises, find themselves
for the time being in a state of uncertainty with regard to the
application of these provisions of the Treaty. The Consultative
Assembly believes that no effort should be spared to remove this
uncertainty.
10. The abolition of customs duties between the Member States
of the Community has, as was foreseen in the Treaty, immediately
made it necessary to harmonise the tariffs of the Member States vis-à-vis third countries. The measures
now taken include the introduction of a tariff quota in the Benelux
countries and the re-introduction in France and in the German Federal
Republic of the steel tariffs which were suspended during the period
of quantitative restrictions. In this connection the Consultative
Assembly notes with satisfaction that the Member States, in the
words of the Special Report, have taken the first steps "to harmonise
the duties with the aim of lowering them". In so doing, the Member
States will add to their own competitive power and will at the same
time further the international division of labour, which is in the
interest of all countries.
11. The Consultative Assembly notes that an agreement on minimum
export prices has been reached by the steel producers of the Community.
Such an agreement might involve the danger of isolating the price system
of the Community from that of the outside world, with consequences
which might run counter to the aims of the Community, at laid down
in Article 3 of the Treaty, in that they would raise difficulties
for those industries of the Community of whose products steel forms
an important component.
12. The Consultative Assembly believes that the High Authority
should as soon as possible define its policy with regard to the
long-term level of prices, and, in particular, should declare whether
it aims at allowing coal and steel prices to find their own level
or whether it intends to stabilise them.
13. In dealing with this long-term problem the High Authority
should bear in mind the possibilities of expanding the markets for
coal and steel. In particular, close co-operation should be encouraged
not only among the Member States of the Community themselves, but
also between those States and the other Member States of the Council
of Europe, for the purpose of developing overseas countries on the
lines proposed in the Strasbourg Plan.
14. It is, of course, premature for the Consultative Assembly
to pronounce at this stage on the investment policies of the High
Authority and of the Member Governments of the Community. The Consultative
Assembly will therefore confine itself to emphasising that it is
desirable that in framing the investment policy for the coal and
steel industries of the six Member States account should be taken
of the investment requirements of their other industries and of
the capital investment programmes of the other Member States of
the Council of Europe. Mutual consultation in this field between
the High Authority, the Member Governments of the Community and
the Governments of the other Member States of the Council of Europe
would meet the common desire for a co-ordinated and selective expansion
of the productive power of Europe, which has found expression in
the general policy of O. E. E. C.
15. It may be found that the maximum benefits cannot be derived
from the establishment of the common market in coal and steel unless
it is accompanied by the adoption of complementary policies in other
sectors of the economies of the Member States of the Community,
This question is one which concerns in the first place the Member
Governments of the Community and does not at present call for comment
by the Consultative Assembly. However that may be, the Consultative
Assembly emphasises that the future success of the Committee depends
also on a progressive development of the collaboration between,
on the one hand, the Community and its Member States, and, on the
other hand, the Council of Europe and O. E. E. C. and the States
which are Members of those organisations. The Consultative Assembly
will contribute wholeheartedly to the development of this collaboration,
and to that end has taken the opportunity of including in the last Section
of this Resolution certain practical proposals to which immediate
effect could be given.
SECTION III
Social Aspects
16. Chapter V of the report of the High Authority has
formed the subject of a report by the Committee on Social Affairs
of the European Coal Steel Community. It has been pointed out in
that report that the High Authority is only at the beginning of
its action in the social field, which will progressively increase
in scope and importance.
17. The Consultative Assembly therefore considers that it is not
possible for it to express an opinion at the moment on questions
whose solution still form the subject of study.
18. The Assembly unanimously expresses its approval, however,
of the general lines on which the High Authority proposes to work.
In particular, it attaches great importance to the studies undertaken
by the High Authority in respect of wage-rates and conditions of
work and of the question of the investments to be made in the construction
of housing accommodation for workers.
19. The Consultative Assembly notes with satisfaction the measures
contemplated with a view to the free movement of manpower, which,
although limited to the coal and steel industries, conform in principle
with the opinions already expressed by the Consultative Assembly
on numerous occasions.
20. With regard to social security, the Consultative Assembly
wishes to draw the attention of the High Authority to the two Interim
Agreements on Social Security and the Convention on Social and Medical Assistance,
prepared in the Council of Europe and approved by the Committee
of Ministers and the Consultative Assembly. The Agreements and the
Convention are to be submitted to the Member Governments for signature.
They lay down the principle of equal treatment for all nationals
of the Member States in respect of social security and assistance.
A Committee of experts is at present engaged in other studies with
a view to framing a European Code of Social Security, the object
of which is to standardise the benefits obtainable.
21. In the opinion of the Consultative Assembly it will be possible
gradually to develop joint activities is certain fields between
the European Cool and Steel Community and the Council of Europe.
This process will be greatly facilitated by their common interest,
their common determination and the inter-relation of certain problems.
22. The Consultative Assembly wishes to emphasise that the European
Coal and Steel Community comprises a number of countries faced with
the critical problem of surplus population. It is essential for
the political and economic stability of Europe that this situation
should be eased. The solution of this problem requires general freedom
of movement for manpower not only within the European Coal and Steel
Community but also beyond its frontiers. The Consultative Assembly
believes that concerted action between the Community and States
not Members of the Community would contribute to a solution of the
problem.
SECTION IV
General Conclusions
23. In the Report
Note presented to the Common
Assembly by its Committee on Political Affairs and on the External
Relations of the Community it is stated that :
"5. It is obvious that the relations with the Council
of Europe within the framework of the Protocol appended to the Treaty
are of the utmost importance, insofar as it is intended to create
that atmosphere of mutual understanding and confidence without which
it is impossible to establish solid links and to achieve a progressive
harmonization of the economic policies of the member countries of
the Community and the countries which have not yet joined it.
For our efforts in Europe must be directed towards this
long-term harmonization if we really want the union of the European
countries to take on a positive aspect and do not want it to be
inspired by reasons of security and defence alone."
24. The Consultative Assembly fully endorses this statement, and
shares the satisfaction expressed by the Committee with regard to
the steps which have already been taken to bring about the close
working relationship between the High Authority and the Common Assembly,
on the one hand, and the Consultative Assembly and its Committees,
on the other. In addition to the Joint Meeting of the two Assemblies,
the President and other members of the High Authority have attended
meetings of the Committee on Economic Questions of the Consultative
Assembly at which a most useful exchange of views took place. The
Consultative Assembly recommends that these arrangements should
be developed as far as possible, and, in particular, first, that
joint meetings should take place between the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe and the Special Council of Ministers of
the Community, at which on suitable occasions the Foreign Ministers
would be replaced by the Ministers immediately concerned with the
technical questions under consideration ; and, secondly, that, in
accordance with the practice already adopted in the case of the
Committee on Economic Questions, the members of the High Authority
should be invited to attend meetings and take part in the discussions
of other committees of the Consultative Assembly.
25. Finally, the Consultative Assembly suggests that the full
benefit of future joint meetings of the two Assemblies would be
assured, if a similar procedure could be evolved allowing for joint
meetings between the Committees of the two Assemblies which are
concerned with the same category of problems. The Consultative Assembly
accordingly recommends that this question should be studied by the
Bureaux of the two Assemblies, and a joint decision reached as soon
as possible.
