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| RESOLUTION 956 (1991)1 on
transfer of technology to countries of Central and Eastern Europe |
| 1. The Assembly welcomes the measures currently afoot
within the Co-ordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (Cocom) to relax
restrictions on the transfer of technology to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. |
| 2. For a long time this instrument, which was set up as a
practical arrangement but without any legal footing, has served to maintain the
technological lead of the Western alliance over the communist bloc. |
| 3. Today, however, the democratic process under way in
Central and Eastern Europe, the introduction of a parliamentary system and economic reform
have profoundly modified the situation. |
| 4. The success, and indeed the survival, of the new regimes
depend not only on political and social support, but on economic modernisation by the
introduction of advanced technologies of the sort available in the West. |
| 5. Ageing industrial plant and energy infrastructures are
also responsible for environmental pollution in these countries and the consequent threat
to public health. |
| 6. In addition to these considerations of an internal
nature, the gradual relaxation of Cocom regulations is in keeping with the spirit of the
second basket of the CSCE (commerce and economic co-operation). |
| 7. The Assembly therefore feels that a more radical reform
of Cocom is required to cater for the new situation in Central and Eastern Europe. |
| 8. To this end it invites Cocom member states to examine
the following measures : |
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i. precise criteria must be drawn up regarding the eligibility of
different countries to receive so-called ‘‘sensitive'' technologies. The gradual
relaxation, or even total abrogation, of restrictions must follow the same timetable as
the democratic process inthe countries concerned. One criterion, for example, could be
accession to the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights ;
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ii. uniform criteria regarding the list of sensitive items and
control mechanisms must be drawn up in order to avoid differences of interpretation and
implementation from one country to another. Abusive implementations such as
‘‘extraterritoriality'' must be abolished ;
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iii. the basis of the industrial list must be reduced almost
exclusively to those products with significant military implications. The new lists must
be drawn up by a committee made up of real technicians, and all national foreign policy or
trade policy considerations must be left aside ;
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iv. in order to strike a balance between the respective influence
of the different geographical zones within Cocom, the EEC and EFTA could be given a
greater role to play as political and economic entities.
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| 9. The Assembly therefore encourages the European Economic
Community and the European Free Trade Association, particularly in view of the 1992
deadline and the ever-increasing number of economic co-operation agreements being
concluded between these organisations and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, to
work out a common European position to submit to their partners in Cocom. |
| 10. It suggests that a dialogue between the Cocom countries
on the one hand and countries in Central and Eastern Europe in need of technology on the
other be initiated within the CSCE. |
| _______________ 1. Assembly
debate on 29 and 30 January 1991 (21st and 23rd Sittings) (see Doc. 6337, report of
the Committee on Science and Technology, Rapporteur : Mr Klejdzinski ; Doc.
6367, opinion of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, Rapporteur : Mr
Miville ; and Doc. 6373, opinion of the Committeeon Relations with European
Non-Member Countries, Rapporteur : Mr Atkinson). |
| Text adopted by the Assembly on 30
January 1991 (23rd Sitting). |
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