The second part of the eighth ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg from October 15 through 26, 1956, under the presidency of Mr. Dehousse (Belgium, Socialist). He informed the Assembly that a majority of the Committee of Ministers had considered that a special meeting of the Assembly to discuss the Suez problem would be premature.

On September 28, 1956, Lord Ismay, Secretary General, called a special meeting of the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to consider the implications of the decision by the government of the German Federal Republic to request the west German parliament to establish the term of national compulsory military service at 12 in lieu of 18 months. The Council feared that this decision would very probably prevent the German Federal Republic from meeting its commitments to NATO. The west German representative stated that his government would meet its previously negotiated commitments both as to quality and quantity; west German regular forces would be raised from 230,000 to 300,000 to compensate for the reduction of availability of conscripts. The Council requested the west German representative to inform his government of the concern of the Council.

The Council of Ministers of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) convening in Paris under the chairmanship of Mr. Macmillan (Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom) received the report of a Ministerial Working Party of OEEC on November 15, 1956 which discussed the economic situation in member countries. The report noted the prosperity in western Europe, yet stressed the threats to it due to events in the middle east and interruption of traffic in the Suez. Besides a shortage of oil, the report noted a shortage of coal. It also stressed three weak points in the economy of western Europe: 1) the slowing down of the expansion of production; 2) the rise of prices; and 3) the imbalance in intra-European payments. It explained that the increase in production had fallen off due to a shortage of available labor; the rise in prices was due to excessive demand and increasing wages. The report called for serious fiscal measures, such as an increase in taxes, a reduction of subsidies to consumption and a cutting down of public expenditures. These measures could be supplemented by governmental action designed to increase competition in the home market and to enhance the free movement of workers in order to alleviate the man-power shortage.

The European Payments Union (EPU) was prolonged for a seventh year from July 1, 1956, without any alterations in the rules under which it had operated since August 1, 1955. The sixth annual report of EPU retraced the economic and financial developments in member countries during the fiscal year 1955–1956. It pointed out that economic activity had continued to expand, but in many countries demand had showed signs of growing rather faster than output, so that some inflationary pressures were felt in the form of rising prices and wages and of some weakening of individual balances of payments. The strongest advances in industrial output had occurred in France, with increases in west Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands being next in importance; there had been no growth in the United Kingdom. Most countries had witnessed a gradual exhaustion of spare productive capacity and very full employment, with man-power shortages in certain specific sectors. A significant development in most countries had been the increase in fixed capital formation. In France and the United Kingdom especially, one main reason for it had been the fact that full use of industrial capacity had already been approached and labor shortages were appearing. The rise in investment expenditure, in conjunction with a continued increase of consumer expenditure, particularly on durable goods, had added to inflationary pressures. In a number of countries wage demand had seemed in excess of the probable rise in productivity; and in several countries wage increases had been granted. Between the second quarter of 1955 and the second quarter of 1956, prices had risen in most countries by 4–6 percent, and by even more in Iceland and Turkey.

The first part of the second session of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) was held in Strasbourg from April 23 to 25, 1956, under the presidency of Mr. John Maday, President of the Assembly (United Kingdom, National Liberal and Conservative). Mr. Maclay read to the Assembly a letter he had received from Mr. Guy Mollet (Prime Minister of France) in which the latter, regretting that he had been unable to attend the session, pledged that France would support all initiatives tending to strengthen WEU, in particular in the cultural and social spheres. A draft order of business was presented to the Assembly for consideration and was accepted.

The eleventh session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held in Geneva from October n to November 17, 1956, under the chairmanship of SirClaude Corea (Ceylon), who succeeded L. Dana Wilgress (Canada). At the beginning of the session Mr. Wilgress warned the delegates that if the trade system provisionally established under GATT were not given more permanent form, alternative machinery was likely to be established. Mr. Wilgress's comments were reported to have been directed at the failure of the United States to adhere to the proposed Organization for Trade Cooperation (OTC) United States foreign trade policy was reported to have been severely criticized during the session, notably by Australia; the Australian representative reportedly said that United States leadership was open to doubt, for one thing because of the failure of the United States government to accept the OTC and for another because of its surplus disposal program. The Contracting Parties, after examining the status of the Agreement providing for the OTC, urged non-signatory Contracting Parties to sign it without delay.