A basis for economic cooperation in Europe

The UN-Economic Commission for Europe, to which today the large majority of the economically most advanced states in the world belong, has in the 21 years of its existence done work that cannot be gauged merely by tangible results. The Commission has played a vital part in creating the essential climatic conditions for the economic reconstruction of Europe after the war. During the dark days of the “cold war” it remained the only functioning forum for a dialogue between East and West. Its activities range from the regulation of cross-frontier traffic, to researches into long-term economic developments in Europe, to the promotion of East-West trade and even to questions of scientific and technological cooperation, and as such the ECE sets an example of economic coexistence. At the beginning of the third decade of its existence the Commission, firmly rooted as it is in a well-balanced mixture of idealism and realism, can look to the future with confidence. On the occasion of the 23rd meeting of the UN/ECE, which ended in Geneva on the second of May, we discussed with its chairman, Dr Treu, some of the main problems of economic cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe.