The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA [COMECON])

The emergence of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) ostensibly resulted from Russian allegations that the Marshall Plan and the body established to facilitate the distribution of its funds, the OEEC, represented a threat to national sovereignty. The only organ of the CMEA to be foreshadowed at the Moscow conference was the Session of the Soviet which would meet 'periodically', each country sending delegations in turn to a rotation of members' capital cities. Thus, the Second Session of the Council meeting in Sofia made arrangements for scientific and technical co-operation, including the establishment of bilateral agencies for these exchanges. The Seventh Council Session in May 1956 formalised the emergence of technical committees comprised of experts who, during 1954-5, had made recommendations on bilateral specialisation in different industries. The participants in the 1949 Moscow conference were Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Rumania and the Soviet Union.