The draft Treaty is mainly of a political and legal character. Its social aspects are limited and do not always clearly emerge from the text.
Three Articles should he noted : Article 2, which defines t h e mission and general aims of the Community, Article 50, relating to the Economic and Social Council, and Article 82, concerning the establishment of a common market, with particular reference to the free movement of persons.
The provisions for the creation of an Economic and Social Council and the clause concerning t h e free movement of persons cannot but meet with the approval of the Consultative Assembly, since they are in harmony with views already expressed by the Assembly.
According to Article 2, the general aims of the Community include the promotion of " t h e development of employment " and " the improvement of t h e standard of living ".
The social aims of the Community thus defined are in complete harmony with the social aims of the Council of Europe, Article 1 of the Statute of the Council states that the aim of the latter is to facilitate the social progress of the Member States by discussion of questions of common concern and by agreements and common action in social matters. This definition, naturally, embraces all social measures aimed at improving the standard of living and increasing the possibilities of employment. This concordance, moreover, is confirmed by clause 5 of Article 2 of the draft Treaty, which stipulates that it is the Community's mission to contribute towards the endeavour of Member States to achieve the general objectives laid down in the Statute of the Council of Europe.
However, although the two objectives "??development of employment " and " improvement of the standard of living " which are included in Article 2 of the draft Treaty, are fairly wide in scope, they may not seem sufficiently explicit and may even be a little too restrictive, since they may be interpreted as referring only to the realisation of à purely material improvement of living conditions. One may assume that the . draft Treaty would kindle more popular enthusiasm if men and women could find in it a means to social progress over and above the material benefits obtained.
For this reason, and with a view to improving the draft Treaty on this point, the Committee on Social Questions moves the following Amendment to draft Recommendation (II), tabled by t h e Committee on General Affairs, Doc. 120 :
Before paragraph (a) insert the following paragraph :
" That in Article 2, paragraph 4, after the words : ' standard of living in Member States ' be added the words : ' and all other measures whose purpose is to foster the social progress of the workers.' "