Economic situation of the Member States of the Council of Europe
Report
| Doc. 30
| 02 September 1949
- Committee
- Committee on Economic Affairs and Development
- Rapporteur :
- Lord David ECCLES,
United Kingdom
- Thesaurus
1 Preamble
1. The Consultative
Assembly of the Council of Europe warns the peoples of Europe that millions
among them will soon go hungry and unemployed unless they act at once to
re-establish the economic equilibrium between Europe and North America, by
increasing their dollar resources, and by developing trade between their own
countries, thus advancing along the road towards a united, powerful and
prosperous European economy.
2. The most urgent task is to pay for the
food and raw materials which at present have to be bought in North America. The
necessary dollars can only be found if a fresh effort is made on both sides of
the Atlantic. The countries of Europe must increase their productivity and
reduce their costs and selling prices, so as to adapt themselves to the hard
facts of the post war world. On their side the U. S. A., which recognises the
need for Europe to sell more to them, should encourage these imports by every
possible means and in particular by lowering its customs tariffs.
3. The free nations of Europe can do much to save themselves by mutual help.
Together with their overseas associates and territories they represent a
population which as regards numbers and skill has no equal in the world. If the
peoples of Europe are weak to-day it -is because they are divided, but if they
have the vision and courage to unite their markets, they can lower their costs
and selling prices, sell more to each other and more than recover their lost
prosperity,
4. The economic union of free Europe should not create an
exclusive trading area. On the contrary, the door would be open to the exchange
of goods and services on fair terms with all the world.
5. The
realisation of economic union would include the abolition by stages of
restrictions on the movement of men, money and goods, and the co-ordination of
investments, of basic industries and of agriculture.
6. This union
would include the free circulation of goods and capital. It implies the rapid
establishment of a multilateral system of payments, leading to the restoration
of convertibililty of European currencies with one another, subject to the
safeguards necessary to enable movements of capital to be controlled during the
transitional period.
7. The building up of such a union of free
peoples implies central planning, combined with a maximum degree of individual
liberty. The central planning must be by consent, and the liberty must be used
for the good of all.
2 Proposals for action to be taken by the Member States of the Council
of Europe between themselves and also between the latter and other
nations
The Consultative Assembly requests the Committee of
Ministers:
1 To invite the Governments to
intensify the spread of economic information through existing
2 channels and at the same time to enable the Consultative Assembly to
use all available means to make the peoples of Europe aware of the gravity of
the peril in which they are living, and of the advantages to themselves of
pooling their resources in a common effort to regain solvency and reach a new
level of prosperity.
3 To take all practical steps to
establish as cniickly as possible a multilateral system of payments, including
the restoration of the intercon-vertibility of European currencies, subject to
the safeguards necessary to enable the movement of capital to be controlled
during the transitional period.
4 To create permanent
machinery for consultation on credit policy.
5 To call an
economic conference, representing themselves and their overseas associates and
territories, in order:
a to follow up and extend
both the work of 0. E. E. C. in liberalising inter-European trade, and all
studies now being made in regard to the economic relations of Europe and its
overseas associates and territories;
b as a first step
towards a unified market to extend existing preferential systems to the whole
of the trading area represented by all those taking part in the
conference;
c to study the development of production within
the territories of the members of the conference so that their individual
import requirements may be met as efficiently as possible from their combined
resources;
d to study the conditions under which the
investment in their territories of American and other non-European capital
could be encouraged.
6 To call as soon as
possible, industrial conferences representing both employers', workers' and
consumers' organisations, as well as government services interested in the main
manufacturing and agricultural industries, in order to make concrete proposals
to the Assembly on the organisation of these industries and the increase in
their productivity in the common interests of Europe.
7 To
draw up a draft European convention for the control of international Cartels,
which it will present to the Assembly.
3
The Consultative Assembly also requests the
Committee of Ministers:
a that after the approval
of proposals by the Consultative Assembly a delegation from the Council of
Europe, instructed to give expression the common economic policy of Member
States, should enter into negotiations with the Government of the United States
of America and with any other government concerned, in order to obtain their
consent to any necessary modifications in existing treaty obligations and also
to all measures which would encourage imports from Europe, notably by the
reduction of their tariffs;
b that as a result, it would be
good enough to submit to the Assembly, in the next Session, proposals to meet
the recommendations made above together with a report on the progress made on
these subjects since the ordinary session of the Consultative
Assembly.
4 Proposals for the
future work of the Economic Coinmittee
8. The Consultative
Assembly shall decide:
a that the Committee on
Economic Questions may sit in the interval between sessions;
b that it may split into specialized sub-Committees;
c that these sub-Committees may hear evidence from experts on their own
subjects.
9. The Consultative Assembly shall request
its President to make contact with the Secretariat of U. N. 0., of 0. E. E. C,
and B. I. S., in order to have access to all the documents of 0. E. E. C. the
European Economic Commission, and B. I: S., and to arrange for the
international and national officers of these two organisations to be heard by
the Economic Committee, should the committee so desire.
10. The
Appendix to this report sets out those questions referred to the Economic
Committee on Economic Questions by the Committee of Ministers and by members of
the Consultative Assembly which the Committee has decided should be the subject
of study by its Sub-Committees.
Note
Appendix APPENDIX
1. The Committee on Economie Questions has set up four
Sub-Committees:
1.1 Finance and Currency;
1.2 Commercial Policy;
1.3 Industry, Agriculture and
Food;
1.4 Public Works.
2. In
addition the Commission has appointed a rapporteur
3. he following
subjects raised by Members of the Consultative Assembly in motions submitted to
the Committee have have been sent for study to sub-Committees.
Finance and Currency Sub-Committee
A common currency for the Member States of the Council of Europe;
(b) A European Reserve Bank;
(c) A European Bank for
Investments;
(d) Co-ordination of investments;
(e) A
European clearing system.
Commercial Policy Sub-Committee
(a)
Liberalisation of inter-European trade;
(b) Issuing of a European
postage stamp;
(c) Development of the Tourist Industry in
Europe.
Industry, Agriculture and Food
Sub-Committee
(a) The coal industry of the Ruhr;
(b)
Co-ordination of transport, steel and power;
(c) Development of
production and improvement in distribution or agricultural
products.
