Stranica 4 [4]
OCR
XeAe2e November 526 - page four or middle@sized landowmership, combined with high standards of living to which the working class is used, - there is insufficient labor ready to live all year round in rural aréas under conditions that farmers could caeety offer}; the Netherlands finally protested against a ppessure that | aimed at forcing them to increase their prices and sala&ies andt hus to | be deprived of the advantages of their past sacrifices and painful economic reconstruction After weeks of heated discussions in the press | of the three countries, among labor unions, in industrial organizations and in special mixed committees, the Belgian Central Council of Economy came out with a report and suggestions on the problem. According to these data, salarkes paid out in Holland are from 40 to 60%, their purchasing / power from 9 to 12.59 lower than the ones received by Belgian workers. fhe cost of production in agriculture is 50% less in Holland than in Belgium. “he situation is somewhat similar in comparison with Luxembourg where the farming population receives per capita in governmental subsidies the double of the Dutch farmer. - mn October 14th, finally, the Prime Ministers, the #oreign, Labor and Economic Ministers of the three countrres met at Le Zoute for a conference that was to discuss the prevailing @ifficulties. They agreed of setting up fourmixed committees These committees are to study the four main problems: a wage and price policy; the Dutch competition on Belgian and Luxembourg markets; the intergovernmental coordination; the monetary and credit policye oun the basis of their reports, another ministerial conference will be held around the end of November. Competent circles feel that the situation, although, difficult, is not without issuc. Temporary protective measures, under study, m&ght bridge over the most pressing actual difficultiese A long-time program, it is hoped, will eventually lead to a closer coordinationj carefully planned rationalization and re-equipmmant in both agricultural and industrial pxewtumkzmm ent«rpriscs shea] reduce the cost of production in the more expensive countriese According to Luxembourg economic ciréles, the other economic cooperation projett - the Suropean Coal and Steel Pool - meets with less difficultées than does the Benelux unione The schuman Plan indeed, as viewed by Luxembourg experts as the following advantages over Benelux: the coal and steel pool establishes an economic unity, which is founded on a supranational authovity and not merely on agrecments reached between market of the pool's member nations has to be organized for one single production branch (although a most essential one, especially for a steel producing country as Luxembourg is) and does not claim simul taneous remorganization and adjustment of the whole economic life at once; á supranational suropean authority finally has the duty and the possibiiity of compensating its member nations¢ in a wider fieRH for what sacrifices it might impose on them in view of obfaining a higher Kuropean intereste One fear however is quite generally expressed by competent Luxembourgers: it is that the Schuman Plan might develop into a huge costly machine and lead to an international "dirigisme", an economic directorate. There is strong feeling that such a trend already exists and that responsibility for it lies with the socialist influences which play both in the Pool and in Strasbourge Luxembourgers emphasize that such tendencies would be more harmful to their own country than to any of the other Schuman Plan ő.
