EUROPE ASSEMBLY DISSATISFIED

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26204, 30 August 1950, Page 7

EUROPE ASSEMBLY DISSATISFIED

WORK OF MINISTERS’ COMMITTEE

(Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, Aug. 28. The European Assembly at Strasbourg to-night declared itself dissatisfied with the failure of its Committee of Ministers, the European “Upper House,’’ to act on the Assembly’s recommendations.

The Assembly adopted a 650-word reply to a message from the Committee of Ministers.

The former French Prime Minister, Mr Paul Reynaud. attacked the Committee of Ministers and demanded abolition of the committee’s veto powers over Assembly decisions. (Under the present constitution the 15 European Foreign Ministers who make up the committee must ratify all decisions unanimously.) “In -the East there are men who must smile when they see what is happening here,” said Mr Reynaud.

“These Ministers (the committee), acting in a national sphere, have been described as planets. Planets reflect light, but these men have never sent any back.” So long as Mr Ernest Bevin, of Britain, Mr Robert Schuman, of France, and Count Sforza, of Italy, were acting in national and international affairs at the same time, they would continue to be lost “somewhere on the stairways in between.” Mr Reynaud said. The Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a “Declaration of Strasbourg,” a resolution calling for peace ’ without the appeasement of Communism. The vote was 82 to nil, with three abstentions.

The declaration, which was presented by Mr Maurice Edelman, of Britain. on behalf of the Socialist parties represented in the 15-nation Assembly, pledged support for the United Nations in Korea and called for a determined effort by all free nations to mobilise their resources against Communist aggression.