Suchergebnisse

The sixteenth regular session of the Danube Commission was held in Budapest in January 1957. It was reported that a series of organizational and financial problems was deliberated, an assessment of the practical work accomplished given, and the fundamental tasks of the Commission in the forthcoming period determined. Reportedly, the Danube Commission had covered and resolved almost all the basic problems concerning the establishment of the regulations for ensuring free navigation of the Danube; however, uniform regulations regarding civil law relations in navigation still had not been established. In setting its future tasks, the sixteenth session took into account, inter alia, the interconnection of the Danube basin with the other European water ways (the Rhine, the Oder, the Vistula, and the east German canals) and the complex utilization of the Danube as a source of hydroelectric power. It was reported that active cooperation had been established with the Economic Commission for Europe and the International Navigation Congress of Brussels. The importance of taking the entire Danube into account was noted in deliberating the tasks of the Commission relating to navigation and to the increased economic exploitation of the Danube. In this connection it was reported that beginning from the fifteenth regular session of the Commission, the Austrian and west German experts were participating in the Commission's activities.

The fourth South Pacific Conference was held at Rabaul, New Britain, in the territory of Papua and New Guinea, from April 20 to May 13, 1959. Sixty-five delegates and advisers attended from sixteen Pacific territories and the Kingdom of Tonga. The Conference was divided into two standing committees, one dealing with social and health questions, and the other with matters affecting the economic welfare of the island peoples. For the second time in the history of the conferences, the delegates themselves elected the chairman and vice-chairman of each committee, but for the first time a woman was elected chairman of one of them, i.e., the social committee. The Conference proceedings were governed by a general committee, on which each of the six governments forming the membership of the South Pacific Commission was represented by a member of a territorial delegation; the chairman of the Conference, Mr. J. R. Halligan, Australia's Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission, was the only European member of the general committee.

The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) held an extraordinary session in Rome, November 5–9, 1957. It re-elected Mr. Hans Furler (Federal Republic of Germany, Christian Democrat) as President of the Assembly and chose the following as vicepresidents: Messrs. Jean Fohrmann (Luxembourg, Socialist), Roger Motz (Belgium, Liberal), Emilio Battista (Italy, Christian Democrat), Emile Vanrullen (France, Socialist), and W. Rip (Netherlands, Anti-Revolutionary). The Assembly discussed four major topics: safety in the mines, migration and free movement of workers, coordination of transport, and commercial policy in the Community. Four resolutions adopted by the Common Assembly on November 9 dealt with the following points in each of the four areas: need for preventive action, the solution of technical problems, and proposals made by the Conference convened to study safety in the mines; the study to be made by the High Authority of means of solving the housing crisis and of increasing vocational training, as well as of a plan for coordinating manpower movements between member countries; institution of a procedure of mutual consultation, delegation to the High Authority, in respect of coal and steel, of the same competence to be delegated to the European Commission, and close coordination and assembly in one place of European institutions; and the need to coordinate and harmonize European transport and the invitation to the Council of Ministers to take the report presented to the Assembly on this subject as the basis of a common policy.

By the Rome treaties of March 25, 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC or common market) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), five major institutions were created to serve the Communities. Three of these organs, the Assembly, the Court of Justice, and the Economic and Social Committee, were to be the same for both Communities, under the conditions respectively laid down in the two treaties, while the other two institutions, the Council and the Commission, were to remain separate. According to the Convention which dealt with the institutions common to the Communities, the Assembly was to replace the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and the Court of Justice was to replace the Court provided for in the treaty establishing ECSC. The Economic and Social Committee was to serve only EEC and Euratom since ECSC was already served by a comparable body, the Consultative Committee.

Meeting from September 22 to 25, 1959, the European Parliamentary Assembly discussed the principles and problems involved in the establishment of a multilateral European trading association. Opening the debate, Mr. M. P. A. Blaisse (Dutch Popular Catholic) stated that experience had shown that the common market could be considered the driving force of European economic integration. Although at present involving only a part of Europe, it could expand and develop in several ways—by the accession of new members, by the creation of a multilateral association, or by the conclusion of bilateral agreements. Whatever the form of its evolution, the obligations undertaken by member states within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) could not be ignored; similarly, it was imperative to take into account the interests of the United States and Canada. Thus he suggested that special agreements could be concluded with these two countries, to minimize the effects of trade discrimination, along with continued negotiations with members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). He warned against compromise on the final aim, namely, the establishment of a multilateral association. The President of the European Economic Commission, Mr. W. Hallstein, thereupon presented the Commission's recommendations for a trade program on which the six nations could agree. He stated that such a program had to be pragmatic and realistic, and fulfill several conditions: improvement of economic conditions of the nations both inside and outside the European Economic Community (EEC), taking into account Europe's relations with the rest of the world, in particular with the United States; strengthening of the feelings of solidarity between the Community and all those affected by its external commercial policy; and general improvement of trade relations. He urged that care be taken to avoid giving the impression that EEC practiced a policy of discrimination and asked therefore that every effort be made to prove that its aim was the liberalization of trade throughout the world. Specifically, after the next GATT conference, EEC should, in his opinion, forthwith give its agreement to further tariff reductions and, in addition, promote the granting of aid to underdeveloped countries. At the European level, he proposed the creation of a "contact committee, comprised of representatives of the Community and other countries or groups to study the question of the development of external commercial relations. Mr. Hallstein concluded by pointing out that the proposals of his Commission were neither complete nor final. The speakers that followed agreed, on the whole, with the above-mentioned suggestions, but no resolution was adopted and it was decided to re-examine the whole matter at future sessions.