Legal Aspects of OEEC

Extract

The OEEC meeting in Paris in March, 1952, was a turning point for the organisation. Its original function of allocating Marshall Aid having virtually ended, the member-States have had to decide to restrict their activities to the left-over functions concerning intra-European trade and payments or to develop into an effective instrument for co-ordinating European economy.

Initially in the report of September 22, 1947, submitted to the U.S. by the Conference of the sixteen original member-States, the OEEC was described as temporary and limited to the four-year period of U.S. help. In its constitution, however, the elaboration and execution of a joint recovery programme is considered to be only “an immediate task.” The chief aim of the organisation is to be the “achievement of a sound European economy through the economic co-operation of its members” —and this is certainly a function of a permanent character. The general undertaking of the signatories to “work in close co-operation in their economic relations with one another” also suggests a more permanent association.

At the decisive meeting of March 29, 1952, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Butler, declared that it was on OEEC foundations “that we must build and rely for the future.” He also expressed the view that it was more imperative than ever that Europe should resolutely devise collective measures of self-help.

After a review of the new position, the following three primary purposes have been named for keeping the organisation alive: — (1) to raise European production, (2) to eliminate external trade deficits, particularly with the dollar zone, and (3) to help stabilise the internal finances of member-States.