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PAGE 16
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 18, 1946
efforts is the Single European Act and Final Act signed by representatives
of all 12 European Community nations in February, 1986, in Luxembourg and
The Hague, Netherlands. This legislation is in the process of being
ratified by the national parliaments, with
a
deadline of Dec.
31,
1986.
How will the Single European Act (if approved) speed up the till-now
sluggish process of European unity?
An
article in the Summer, 1986, issue
Of
the
little-known JOURNAL OF SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STUDIES,
written by George
A.
Kourvetaris, explains it this way:
The European Community member nations are in the process of
finally relinquishing their sovereignty over large areas
of
economic and social activity by making future Community
resolutions binding upon all member states on the basis of
qualified majority decisions, rather than on the unanimous
agreement by each and every member government.... The community
seeks to create a large single market movement of the total
opulations among the member states just as citizens of a
tingle country are free to travel, work and settle in different
regions of their own country.
The intention is to create a "Europe without frontiers" by the end of
1992. Or more specifically, to reduce national frontiers within the
community to the level of provincial borders. The main thrust of the Act,
mentioned repeatedly throughout its many provisions (we now have a copy of
the Act itself), is the intent to restrict the use of the absolute veto of
each member state and replace it with the principle of "common action,"
that is, qualified majority voting. The national veto is still reserved
in cases of "vital national interest." But it is to be greatly reduced in
the areas of community-wide social and labor legislation and consumer
production harmonization. A
big
test right now, for example, is whether
West Germany's "pure beer" laws, dating back several centuries, can stand
up to the EC's demands for community standardization. Other countries
allow certain additives to beer and demand access to the German market.
Bonn just might have to give in. A small issue? No. This is at the very
core of the drive to create a "Single Europe."
The above-quoted JOURNAL
OF
SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STUDIES says
further that the long range objective behind the Single European Act is
...
to bring a closer convergence between the peoples of
Europe... Its ratification and implementation by the member
governments should replace a Europe traditionally comprising
diverse peoples and nation states by a
n$w
mammoth state
representing one of the world's most extensive array [sic=
populations to fall under the jurisdiction of a single
governmental and legal system.... The citizens of the European
union would become progressively recognized as the wards of the
Union government, responsible to Union courts, instead of to
their traditional national governments."
The framers of the Single European Act continually emphasize peoples over
nations. By doing
so
they intend to break down national barriers
so
that
any group of people can legally live and work anywhere else inside the EC
boundaries. This is their method to ensure that the nations comprising
the European Union will not be able to break ranks and leave it. At the
conclusion of his analysis
Mr.
Kourvetaris emphasizes this point as
follows
: