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PAGE 14
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 6, 1986
r::aay ·sees the arrival at committee stage of the innocuously
� ��titled European Communities (Amendment) Bill. But the bill is
by no means innocuous. It is by far the most important piece of
legislation concerning relations between Britain and Europe to
come before Parliament since the European Communities Act of
1972•••• The bill provides for the passing into law of the Single
European Act.
This incorporates a number of amendments to the
Treaty of Rome, and was approved by the EEC Council of Ministers
earlier this year. It now has to be passed by the legislatures of
all EEC member states.
The Act will
·
have a direct impact on British commercial and
industrial practice. It will effectively mean that there will be
)< hardly a corner of British business
buying and selling,
manufacturing, agriculture, the environment, insurance, the right
to set u � in business -- which is not woven into the fabric of the
Treaty o Rome.
For, once the Act is passed, we are bound to
accept all legislation adopted by the Council of Ministers. One
of the most important amendments contained in the Act is the
extension of majority voting to all decisions taken by the
Council•••• The 12th report of the House of Lords Select Committee
on the European Communities, dated May 6, 1986, said that "in the
long term the position of the UK parliament will become weaker" by
irtue of the weakening of the power of British ministers when
utvoted in the Council.
�ther shocking words in that second paragraph -- how startlingly like
/ the passage in Revelation 13: 17:
"•••that no one may buy or sell
except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of
his name."
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the system outlined in the
13th and 18th chapters of Revelation is taking on a shape that only
those who understand Bible prophecy can see.
As we learn more about
the Single European Act and follow its course through the EC national
�rliaments, we'll do our best to keep you posted.
Global Economic Reform and the ECU At the fiscal heart of this Europe
under-construction is the European Monetary System (EMS), intended to
reduce wild fluctuations between the currencies of the EC countries,
and the European Currency Unit (ECU), a Community-wide monetary
denomination that, although not issued in paper currency, is every bit
as valid a currency as, say, the deutschmark or French franc.
Observers foresee the EMS as a model with global applications and the
ECU as eventually one of the three pillars of the accruing global
monetary system, along with the dollar and the yen. The May
1986
issue
of EUROPE, the EC's unofficial monthly publication, reports:
Reform of the international monetary system is moving to the
center of the stage of economic debate•••• To fully play its role
in an improved system, Europe will have to continue with the
progress that has been made in consolidatin its monetar identit ··
through the European Monetary System (EMS an its currency, t e
European Currency Unit (ECU).... The world economy has lurched
through a series of oil and debt crises. It is often argued that
only the existing floating-rate system could have withstood the