Benelux COMECON






Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC, 1948-1961)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, since 1961)



The OEEC was founded in 1948 with the task to organize the distribution of MARSHALL PLAN AID. Beneficiary nations had to join, to sign a number of treaties safeguarding a free market economy, the liberalize trade etc. The seat of OEEC was PARIS, France.
The members were the UK, France, the Benelux countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Turkey. Western Germany (the FRG since 1949) was also regarded part. The Soviet satellites, Albania and Finland have refused to join; Yugoslavia took an amiguous position, not becoming a full member, but accepting Marshall Aid.
The USA, as the provider of the Marshall Plan fund, has to be regarded as a major factor in this organization, although it was not member.
The OEEC did not pursue a policy of furtherreaching integration and soon found itself in the shadow of economic organisations such as the EEC (since 1957), EFTA (since 1960) and the COMECON, which was founded as Stalin's response to the OEEC in 1949.

In 1961 the OEEC was renamed OECD; it extended its area of operation beyond Europe, now covering the entire globe. Causes for the reorientation were that the economic development of Europe by now was successfully organized by other economic bodies, while DECOLONIZATION had opened a new field in Africa, southern Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean. Membership expabded accordingly, and the program was adjusted.


EXTERNAL
FILES 		OEEC's origins, from OECD
The OEEC, in : The Creation of the European Community, from Eurolandia
For European Recovery: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan, from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag
DOCUMENTS Historical Documents 1930- , from the History of European Integration Site at Leiden University
The Marshall Plan (1947), from National Archives and Record Administration
Marshall Plan Folders, from Project Whistlestop
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on July 8th 2001, last revised on November 11th 2004

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