Evening star., 1950-11-26
Special Authorities
Help Europe AssembI,
Forge Federal Union
BY the Assoe,aied rrsss

BY the Assoc,aied rress 8
STRASBOURG. France, Nov.
25.-The European Consultative
Assembly set out today on a new
rcd toward European fedora ton,
with a stopover scheduled at
special authorities.
Special authorities" is the dis
arming title, for a gradual and
progressive delegation of power
which assemblymen propose to
lead to an eventual genuine au-
thority over Western Europe's de-
fense. foreign policy. finances and
commerce.
1t is a new name for federal
government.
National sovereignty, it seems,
is to be surrendered piece by
piece. instead of in a single pack
age. but it will be surrendered
just the same, If the Assembly
has its way.
Veto Power Maintained.
The Assembly doesn't always
have its way. A discussion group
made up of delegates from Is
European nations, it forms the
lower house of the Council of
Europe-a sort of embryo par
lament. Assembly decisions are
subject to veto by any member
OF the Committee of Foreign
Ministers. the upper house.
But the Assembly has begun
work on new statute intended
to bring member nations into,
closer union. For the immediate
present, the Assembly has:
l. Called for West German
troops to take an equal role in
a unified European Army, linked
to the North Atlantic alliance,
under permanent defense or
ganization. Acceding to British
reserve. the Assembly omitted the
word "supranational" from this
decision, but refused to rule it
out for future consideration.
2. Encouraged member govern
mentS to set up joint special
authorities for economic. agri-
cultural and industrial matters
and eventually for defense. The
six nations now negotiating
treaty based on the Schuman
coal-Steel plan-France, West
Germany. Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg
were urged to complete their talks
as soon as possible.
Specialized Pools.
In other words, the future pic
ture being sketched here shows
a series of specialized pools, paced
by the Schuman Plan.
In each case the member ma
tions, not always the same ones,
would assign specified powers to
a supranational authority which
would be reponsible to joint
parliament made up of members
of the respective national legis-
latures. The idea is that these
men would be picked from ma
tional delegations here in the
Assembly. They would, in effect,
be special committees of the AS
sembly and would report to the
Assembly on their activities.
Assembly President Paul Henri
Spaak of Belgium said today that,
once a number of special authori-
ties exists, the need to coordinate
them will be evident to every one.
AS Mr.. Spaak spoke. two AS
sembly committees began work on
projects for agricultural and trans
port pool authorities. s
British Attitude q Problem.
Britain's stand-ofish attitude is
a subject of concern and the AS
sembly inserted a clause urging
pool governments to work out
means for "associating other
Council members in their COM
mon actions.
French Foreign Minister Schu-
man. in an address before the AS
sembly yesterday. pushed the. uni
Ned European army project a step
further by urging military author
tiles similar to his plan for merg-
ing steel and coal resources under
a single direction.
The Assembly, however, marked
time on this for Britain's benefit.
1t rejected a motion for imme-
date creation of high authority
for defense. This was a rebuff to
proponents of partial federation.
The Assembly thus maintained
its ultimate goal-federation of all
the Wesern nations from Britain
and Scandinavia on down to
Greece and Turkey.