Parliamentary Assembly

Mr President, may I begin by expressing my gratitude for the opportunity I have been given today of addressing the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.

I cannot embark upon my statement, however, without expressing my happiness at the message of hope we received this morning, telling us that the war in Vietnam is coming to an end. It is to be hoped that the unspeakable sufferings endured by the Vietnamese people for so many years will now cease. Both national and international efforts will now be required to bring help to this devastated country and to ensure its reconstruction.

I want also to say how glad I am to be addressing the Assembly at a moment when Europe is on the threshold of a new era. More than ever since the last war, I believe we all share the feeling that a new epoch is opening in the history of Europe, and indeed of the world.

I should like to call attention to two aspects in particular of the present trend, for it is on these that this feeling of mine is based.

In the first place there is technical and economic development, which is changing society more and more and has a deep effect on all our lives. It raises endless new problems and throws down new challenges, which make themselves felt far beyond national frontiers and give many people the sense of being powerless and at the mercy of completely inhuman forces.

Secondly, there is a political development, a post-war dream, which took shape on 5 May 1949, and now seems to be finding new lines of approach, encouraging the hope that it may be possible to create forms of co-operation which will solve these new problems and meet these new challenges – on condition, of course, that we have the imagination, the courage and the ability to make full use of them.

My country’s attitude is naturally very much influenced by the fact that, since 1 January 1973, Denmark has become the only Nordic country to be a Member of the European Community. The referendum on this question which took place in Denmark in October 1972 made it quite dear that there was a definite majority in favour of our country’s participation in this form of international co-operation. The debate which preceded the referendum gave the whole population of Denmark an opportunity to do some heart-searching and to decide what we really wanted and what should be the aims of European cooperation. In this debate, the anti-Marketeers were influenced by their fear of Denmark’s being swallowed up by the large countries and by an unwieldy bureaucratic machine. The pro-Marketeers, who represented two thirds of the votes cast, stressed the strong economic gains to be won by Denmark’s joining the European Community. They also found it promising that the large nations, who formerly went to war both militarily and economically, were now busy cooperating. To summarise the debate and its conclusion – on which the Danish pro- and anti-Marketeers seem to be largely agreed – I would say that we were in agreement on the need for greater co-operation in Europe – and still are – but that we disagreed when we had to decide on the form that co-operation should take and on the extent to which our country should abandon its sovereignty. But, as I have said, everyone was agreed on the need for greater co-operation in Europe.

The enlarged European Community seems to me to have made a promising start. We were present at its send-off and made our contribution to the launching. I find proof enough of this good augury in the decisions taken at the Summit Conference in Paris on 19 and 20 October 1972 and the statements made at the opening of the new Community a few weeks ago. There is agreement on all sides about the new target, which is to improve the quality of life and to create a Europe prepared to assume its responsibilities as one of the richest areas in the world, and it looks as if a new and constructive determination to co-operate is being born. We shall soon see how strong that determination will prove when attacked by private interests.

Relations between the super-powers make it more than ever essential that Europe should have a voice of its own. The dialogue between the super-powers is very much concerned with technical advances in armaments, and, in view of other factors which operate on the world stage, is tending to show that it is no longer so much in the traditional field of security that the great problems will arise in future. Undoubtedly there will always be a need for armed forces, and we can hardly give up our systems of alliances. The world – including Europe – has still a long way to go before these ideas can be consigned to the dustbin. Détente is dependent on the existence and “credibility” of security systems. I think that fact will underlie all the discussions at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe which is now in preparation. The happy development in relations between the two Germanies is certainly the result of a political will, but there too the present security systems have played a decisive part.

That said, I believe we are on the way to a period where quite different problems will occupy the mind and heart of man. The eternal battle between the peoples will tend to take the form of emulation in organising society “nearer to the heart’s desire” or, in other words, of rivalry in improving the quality of life.

The new Community, which saw the light of day on 1 January 1973, will be a decisive factor in the development of Europe. In many fields it will become the centre for far-reaching decisions, and not only for its member countries. It gives me great pleasure to take this opportunity of proclaiming the Danish Government’s desire to see the new EEC adopt an open-door attitude to the world outside the Community. At this Assembly it is natural to mention in this connection the member countries of the Council of Europe which are not Members of the Community, and there is not one of them with which we do not hope to co-operate as closely as possible. But the open-door policy cannot stop there. The Community must recognise its obligations; it must shoulder the responsibilities which devolve upon it – as a partner in co-operation – in connection with the other industrialised countries of the West, the United States of America and Canada, with the Soviet Union and the communist world, and also with the developing countries.

The Danish Government hopes that the nine Community countries will pool their efforts in opposing that narrow materialism which many people seem to believe – though wrongly – has up to new characterised co-operation among the Six.

I hope no one will misunderstand what I am trying to say. I know very well that material progress is the basis of our existence and of our activities, and that that basis must be assured. The new line that I hope and believe will be followed by the Community as its principal target may well be the improvement of the quality of life. In fact that was a point on which the Paris Summit was agreed.

This brings me back to the technical and economic development which changes our daily lives to an ever-growing extent, raises new problems and throws down new challenges.

The by-products of the growing prosperity of the rich countries make us realise that wealth also has its problems which we must learn to overcome. We want to maintain a high level of employment and to ensure good material conditions for our peoples, but we do not want to be smothered by the waste-products of industrial production. Respect for the natural cycle must be the Leitmotiv of politicians’ efforts to direct the onward march of society towards improving the quality of life. This also, under another head, affects environmental policy. I am thinking here of greater opportunities for man in his daily life, how to ensure to every man his rightful place and an opportunity to share more directly in the affairs of the society in which he lives and the decisions which affect him closely. This is an absolute “must” for all industrialised societies, and the way it is dealt with will affect many aspects of our communal life.

One of our tasks will be to make economic life more democratic so that any increase in capital is shared among the wage-earners, and every man thus acquires a right to butter on his bread. The old idea of freedom of the individual, which in economic terms meant every man owning his own little shop, is now losing ground. We need a new form of individualism based on collective effort. We have to sacrifice one form of freedom to gain another, which we hope will be greater.

As I said, Denmark is wholehearted in its intention to co-operate within EEC. But that does not mean that we shall cut down our active participation in other organisations for international co-operation of which we are members.

The Council of Europe has justified its existence from the very beginning, not least as a meeting place for the members of parliament of the European democracies. It has thus been possible for the ideas of the different national parliaments to influence each other and for both national legislation and a common attitude to international co-operation in the different countries to be based on mutual inspiration. The Council of Europe has been an extremely useful catalyst. It has had a very positive influence on opinion in Western European countries in favour of international co-operation. Among other things, it has been a hot-house in which the European idea could take root and grow.

It will be very important for international cooperation that the Council of Europe continue to carry out these tasks. When my predecessor, Mr Jens Otto Krag, visited the Council of Europe in 1966, his speech was mainly devoted to methods of ending the division of Europe into two separate markets. Today, that subject no longer figures on the agenda in the form it then took. We still regret the fact that it was not possible entirely to end this division, which is why we have had to take a longer and more difficult route. Hence the Danish Government regrets that only three countries have joined the enlarged European Community. Naturally, we have to respect the reasons why each country took the attitude it did, but, to be frank, we would have been doubly happy about joining EEC if Norway too had said “Yes” in its referendum in September 1972.

Denmark’s membership of the Community does not mean that my country takes no further interest in the member countries of the Council of Europe which are not Members of EEC. We believe that the Council of Europe will continue to have an important part to play, mainly as a means of contact at different levels. After the enlargement of the Community from six to nine Members, the importance of meetings between members of parliament of the seventeen countries, far from decreasing, will continue to grow.

The Council of Europe machinery must be properly geared to deal with its function as a mediator. Its internal structure and organisation must develop in parallel with the general development of society and adapt itself to changed tasks, to those fresh tasks that the development of Europe demands. We must avoid overlapping between European organisations, and ensure that their work is complementary and serves our common aim, which is more effective cooperation in Europe.

The Council of Europe has made an extremely valuable contribution in many technical fields. I would mention especially human rights and the consequent determination to make democracy the basis of every action. The work done in the cultural, educational and legal fields is also very important. Here, the Council of Europe has acquired data and experience which will enable it to continue promoting valuable co-operation between the countries of the West.

May I end my speech with a word of advice, which is at the same time an invitation to the Council and to its Assembly. Now that the Community has been enlarged, I believe the Council of Europe could contribute better to European co-operation by developing its own activities and at the same time adapting them to those of the Community.

We in Denmark say that all roads lead to Rome, and I think that is a saying common to the whole of Europe. Different roads also lead to increased co-operation between the peoples of Europe. There has been difficulty upon difficulty: differences about ends and means, wars, and economic crises. Today, we find ourselves in a position where co-operation can develop enormously. That development must not be stifled by bureaucracy, narrow-mindedness, or failure to adapt to the requirements and concepts of a new age. That is where the Council of Europe still has an important contribution to make.