Situation of the German Democratic Republic
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 9 May 1990 (5th Sitting) (see Doc. 6219, report of the Committee on Relations with European Non-Member Countries, Rapporteur : Mr Lambie). Text adopted by the Assembly on 9 May 1990 (5th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
1. The Assembly welcomes the evolution of all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe towards the values promoted by the Council of Europe since its foundation : pluralistic parliamentary democracy, rule of law and human rights.
2. In this context, it was pleased with the first free elections in the German Democratic Republic for more than fifty years, held on 18 March 1990, being aware that these elections will lead to the unification of the two German states. In the meantime, according to the decision taken by the Bureau, the German Democratic Republic will be represented in the Parliamentary Assembly with special guest status.
3. As far as the external aspects of German unification are concerned, the Assembly expresses the hope that negotiations between the four powers and the two German states will rapidly produce an agreement on the status and the borders of the future united country, which should be presented at the meeting, scheduled for late 1990, of the heads of state and government participating in the CSCE and could constitute the basis of a peace treaty with the united Germany. Poland should be associated with discussions on the definition of borders.
4. The Assembly shares the views of the four powers according to which the internal aspects of unification and the procedures to obtain it depend essentially on the Germans themselves, it being understood, as has often been stressed, that Germanunification and the construction of Europe should proceed together and mutually reinforce each other.
5. In this context, it considers that unification can be expected to comprise the following steps : monetary, economic and social union in the next few months, political union at a pace acceptable to both German states, and harmonisation in other fields, in particular in the legal one, which can be achieved over a longer period.
6. Finally, the Assembly resolves to hold a debate on the subject of co-operation and security in Europe at its next part-session, if possible with the participation of all the states signatories to the Helsinki Final Act, the conclusions of which would be the parliamentarians' contribution to the next CSCE conference.
