Suchergebnisse

On May 6, 1955, the Western European Union (WEU) formally came into existence.1 On May 7, the WEU Council held its inaugural meeting in Paris. The Council considered various questions relating to the structure of WEU and, after approving the Interim Commission's report and adopting the draft agreement on the status of WEU and its staff, appointed Louis Goffin (Belgium) Secretary-General of WEU. Admiral Ferreri (Italy) was appointed director of the Agency for the Control of Armaments. The Council also decided, on the basis of studies carried out by a working group established at the nine-power conference in Paris on October 21, 1954, to create a Standing Armaments Committee composed of national representatives and served by a small secretariat. The Standing Committee had the task of "the development of the closest possible co-operation between member countries of Western European Union in the field of armaments, in order to seek the most practical means of using the resources available to these countries for equipping and supplying their forces and of sharing tasks in the best interest of all". In order to promote liaison with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the seat of the Standing Committee was to be Paris; Charles Cristofini (France) was appointed Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the international secretariat of the Standing Committee. The Council further decided that the first meeting of the WEU Assembly should be held in Strasbourg during die same period as the next session of die Consultative Assembly of die Council of Europe and that the WEU Assembly should be composed of die representatives of the Brussels Treaty powers to the Consultative Assembly.

Annual Report:The fifth annual report of the Managing Board of the European Payments Union (EPU) covered the period July I, 1954 to June 30, 1955. The financial year 1954—1955, the report noted, had been one of considerable economic expansion in member countries, although with some variation between them; the progress of the previous year, which had followed upon a period of relative stagnation, had continued and gathered momentum. The report noted that in some countries the rapid expansion had had repercussions both internally and externally which had required corrective measures. During 1954–1955 industrial production had increased greatly, the increase being most marked in base metal manufacturing, metal products and in chemical manufacturing. However, agricultural production of member countries, as a whole, had not changed from the previous year. The report stated that the greater industrial production had been the result of both increased employment and productivity; in a number of countries unemployment had been reduced to new low levels and in certain countries, the number of unfilled vacancies exceeded that of the registered unemployed. Concurrently, and in connection with the rapid economic expansion, salaries and wages had increased in practically all member countries to a much greater extent than in previous years.

The European Payments Union (EPU) was prolonged for a seventh year from July 1, 1956, without any alterations in the rules under which it had operated since August 1, 1955. The sixth annual report of EPU retraced the economic and financial developments in member countries during the fiscal year 1955–1956. It pointed out that economic activity had continued to expand, but in many countries demand had showed signs of growing rather faster than output, so that some inflationary pressures were felt in the form of rising prices and wages and of some weakening of individual balances of payments. The strongest advances in industrial output had occurred in France, with increases in west Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands being next in importance; there had been no growth in the United Kingdom. Most countries had witnessed a gradual exhaustion of spare productive capacity and very full employment, with man-power shortages in certain specific sectors. A significant development in most countries had been the increase in fixed capital formation. In France and the United Kingdom especially, one main reason for it had been the fact that full use of industrial capacity had already been approached and labor shortages were appearing. The rise in investment expenditure, in conjunction with a continued increase of consumer expenditure, particularly on durable goods, had added to inflationary pressures. In a number of countries wage demand had seemed in excess of the probable rise in productivity; and in several countries wage increases had been granted. Between the second quarter of 1955 and the second quarter of 1956, prices had risen in most countries by 4–6 percent, and by even more in Iceland and Turkey.

The Council of Ministers of Western European Union (WEU) met on June 16, 1955 in London. The Council gave further consideration to the setting up of the European Commission for the Saar, and the following members were nominated by governments and approved by the Council: M. F. Dehousse (Belgium), P. De Paolis (Italy), M. A. Kunnen (Luxembourg), A. W. C. Bentinck (Netherlands), and George Ren-del (United Kingdom). The first meeting of the European Commission, it was decided, would be held on June 24 in London. The Council also decided that the inaugural meeting of the Assembly of WEU would be held on July 5 in Strasbourg.

The first part of the first session of the Assembly of Western European Union(WEU) was held in Strasbourg from July 5 to 8, 1955. Mr. John Maclay (United Kingdom, National Liberal and Conservative) was elected President of the Assembly by acclamation. Six Vice-Presidents, Mr. Robert Bichet (France, M.R.P.), Mr. Antonio Boggiano Pico (Italy, Christian Democrat), Mr. Georges Bohy (Belgium, Socialist), Mr. J. J. Fens (Netherlands, Popular Catholic), Mr. Gerhard Luetkens (German Federal Republic, Social Democrat), and Mr. Eugene Schaus (Luxembourg, Liberal) were elected, and the Bureau of the WEU Assembly was thus constituted.

The first part of the second session of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) was held in Strasbourg from April 23 to 25, 1956, under the presidency of Mr. John Maday, President of the Assembly (United Kingdom, National Liberal and Conservative). Mr. Maclay read to the Assembly a letter he had received from Mr. Guy Mollet (Prime Minister of France) in which the latter, regretting that he had been unable to attend the session, pledged that France would support all initiatives tending to strengthen WEU, in particular in the cultural and social spheres. A draft order of business was presented to the Assembly for consideration and was accepted.

The second part of the second ordinary session of the Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) was held in Strasbourg from October 11 to 13, 1956, under the chairmanship of Mr. J. S. Maclay (United Kingdom). Following examination of a report presented by its General Affairs Committee, the Assembly adopted three recommendations to the WEU Council, concerning, respectively, cultural matters, WEU's activities in the Saar, and social questions. On October 12, the Assembly discussed the state of European defense, on the basis of a report presented by Mr. J. J. Fens (Netherlands, Popular Catholic). Following its debate, the Assembly adopted two further recommendations. The first called upon the Council to take an immediate decision concerning the nature of the reorganization of western defensive forces, and to give a clear lead to public opinion in the matter; it continued that it must be accepted that substantial conventional forces be retained in order to meet all eventualities, and that the west German contribution to European defense should be made effective as soon as possible. In the second recommendation, the Assembly expressed its belief that it could not hold an informed debate unless, with due regard to the requirements of security, all the documentation necessary was made available, and recommended that the Council urgently review its interpretation of the Brussels Treaty as regarded WEU's function in that field. The latter resolution, according to press reports, followed a debate marked by a sense of frustration, with nearly all the speakers complaining that the Council had not given the Assembly's defense committee sufficient information on which to base recommendations. A majority of the continental deputies were reported to favor the Council's becoming responsible to the Assembly, rather than to member governments, for its decisions, but they were reported to realize that the United Kingdom parliament would never accept the consequent limitation of sovereignty. However, in the meantime, the feeling was reported to be that governments could still do much to strengthen WEU.

The second part of the first session of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) was held in Strasbourg on October 24 and 28, 1955 under the chairmanship of Mr. John Maclay, President of the Assembly (United Kingdom, National Liberal and Conservative). A draft charter and draft rules of procedure, the chief items on the agenda, were presented to the Assembly on behalf of the Committee on Organization by the rapporteur, Mr. van der Goes van Naters (Netherlands, Socialist), who stated that the method of creating new organizations in Europe had empirical merits, but that there was a danger of inefficient use of Europe's resources as a whole; he felt that the best possible use should be made of parliamentary time; that parliamentarians should not sit on committees that duplicated each other's work; and that no new assemblies should be created without a careful examination of the burdens involved. Mr. van der Goes van Naters declared that collaboration between the ministerial and parliamentary organs of WEU was the keynote of the charter; in order to avoid a clash between the ministers and the Assembly, the charter had been drafted so as to avoid making general rules to govern future and unknown situations and to allow for each case to be treated on its merits as it arose. He stated that with the exception of two provisions where the assent of the Council of Europe must first be sought, the charter contained no provisions on which the Assembly could not decide for itself.

Monthly statements issued by EPU during the period March 1954–December 1954 indicated that the German Federal Republic retained its position as chief creditor; United Kingdom monthly surpluses, while considerable, were less consistent than those of Germany. France showed a surplus for the month of July 1954, for the first time since June 1952, and by December 1954, had a cumulative surplus since June 30, 1954, of 6.7 million units of account. Settlements with France under the rule that gold paid by France would be recoverable to the extent that it had a net surplus for the period after June 30, 1954, reduced the amount of gold paid by France for deficits beyond its quota to 351.3 million units of account. Surpluses and deficits of other member countries were settled half in gold and half in credit, with the exception of Greece and Turkey, whose balances were settled in gold. As a result of EPU's December operations, its total of gold and convertible assets declined by 5.6 million units, to 422.9 million units.

The official American policy regarding a United Europe has developed rapidly since the end of World War II and has already gone far toward committing the United States to the establishment of a European Union of some kind. The first important overt act in this development was the declaration of policy in the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948. One purpose of this legislation, Congress declared, was "to encourage these countries [that is, European participants in the Marshall Plan] through a joint organization to exert sustained common efforts as set forth in the report of the Committee on European Economic Cooperation, signed at Paris on September 22, 1947." With this encouragement the Organization for European Economic Cooperation was soon effected. The next step was to extend the area of American interest from the economic to the military field. One of the purposes of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 was "to achieve international peace and security through the United Nations so that armed force shall not be used except in the common interest." This legislation led eventually to the effort to organize a European Defense Community capable of playing an important role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A further step was the Mutual Security Act of 1951, which declared American policy to be "to further encourage the economic unification and the political federation of Europe." Thus the American government finally became involved in the projected establishment of a constitution for a United States of Europe.