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Western European Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

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Extract

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.

Type
International Organizations: Summary of Activities: III. Political and Regional Organizations
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1956

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References

1 For a summary of the first part of the first session of the WEU Assembly, see International Organization, X, p. 223–224.

2 Western European Union, Assembly (1st session, 2d part), Proceedings, Strasbourg, 1955Google Scholar.

3 For information on the Saar referendum, see International Organization, X, p. 224–225.

4 For information on this decision, see ibid., p.225.

5 The first part of the second session of the Assembly will be summarized in a later issue of International Organization.

6 NATO Letter, June 1956, p. 26–27.