Currents of History 3/2019
Kornelija AJLEC
Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
kornelija.ajlec@ff.uni-lj.si
European Payments Union and Negotiations on the Accession of Yugoslavia[1]*
Abstract: Through the prism of original resources kept by the US National Archives, and secondary literature, the article deals with the American aspect of the negotiations for the accession of the FNR Yugoslavia to the European Payments Union (EPU), which operated between 1950 and 1958, with the primary objective of eliminating obstacles in the Western European trade. Yugoslavia never became a full member of the Union; it did, however, became affiliated with it just before the Union was abolished, when Yugoslavia achieved currency convertibility for foreign trade balances.
Key words: Yugoslavia, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OEEC, economic aid, European Payments Union
Summary
The idea of Yugoslavia joining the European clearing and currency convertibility system was not born out of a desire for integration into the Western bloc in general, but out of sheer necessity. In the beginning of the 1950’s, Yugoslavia’s foreign trade balances were in deficit, negatively affecting its economic growth and general development. Consequently, the Yugoslav Government lobbied for full membership in the European Payments Union. At the time, the United States was Yugoslavia's largest trading partner, as well as the largest contributor of financial and military aid. In applying its policy of drawing Yugoslavia closer to the Western Bloc after the Cominform crisis of 1948, it sought to influence its West European allies into allowing Yugoslavia to make use of some of the mechanisms implemented by the EPU. However, in the beginning the member states were reluctant to let Yugoslavia align with the Union due to the political reasons surrounding the question of Trieste. Later, the association was prevented by the large trade deficits with most EPU member states. However, in 1953 Yugoslavia was allowed to enter into an affiliation with the EPU and use some of its mechanisms. Consequently, Yugoslavia achieved currency convertibility by 1958 along with other West European countries, which was one of the overall motives for the establishment of the EPU as an organization.
[1]* The research was made possible by the support of the Fulbright scholarship and the national program Slovenian History (P6-0235) funded by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). I would like to thank Dr. Aleksandar Životić, Dr. Božo Repe, Dr. Dušan Nečak, Dr. Peter Mikša, Maja Vehar, Dr. Claire Strom, and Ivanka Ponikvar, MA, for their insight and support.