CONFERENCES: Expertocracy

Inside Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, the Committee of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe, unofficial vehicle of hopes for European unity, last week approved a convention (previously passed by the Council’s Consultative Assembly) “for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Europe. The document included a promise of freedom of religion, marriage, assembly, opinion, and freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, official murder, torture, slavery, and retroactive penal laws.

On other agenda items the committee’s actions were less forthright. It sidestepped a decision on the Schuman plan, by passing the buck to the six member governments concerned. It postponed action on European social security, pending findings of a committee of “social experts.”

The most ardent pushers for European unity were mildly disappointed by the week’s achievements. Belgium’s Paul-Henri Spaak, for example, said the ministers were suffering from “expertocracy” —a tendency to throw too many matters back to the experts. Cried Spaak: “With a little audacity and more good will, so much more could have been accomplished.” But others were glad of progress, however slight, toward a difficult goal. Said Italy’s Foreign Minister Carlo Sforza: “For the first time in a meeting of the Committee of Ministers I felt an atmosphere of sincere understanding and the will to reach an agreement.”