Historica Olomucensia

The advance of military operations of the Allies in 1943 and the expected defeat of the Axis states started more and more urgently to recognise a necessity of establishing a mechanism that would ensure a closer co-operation between the U.S.A, the U.S.S.R and Great Britain in solving European issues, resulting from the war development. First, the Allies focussed on solving the most topical issue of the time - the expected capitulation of Italy. The powers agreed upon the establishment of the Political-Military Commission, but the members of this body did not meet at all. It was only at the conference of the ministers of foreign affairs of the Big Three in autumn 1943 when the Consultative Committee for Italy was established and so was the European Advisory Commission. The ministers saw its role mainly in studying European problems resulted from the gradual termination of military actions and recognised by the Big Three as purposeful to be submitted to the commission that would review the situation and elaborate a common stance. The first meeting of the commission was held on 14th January 1944, the last one on 6th September 1945. The committee elaborated a proposal regarding capitulation conditions, which were to be submitted to Germany by the Allies, and it drew up the structure of an additional control mechanism that would enable to check whether Germany met the requirements and stipulated the occupational zones for particular allied powers in the country. The commission elaborated similar materials regarding the post-war administration of Austria. A number of documents elaborated on its grounds were submitted and approved at the two big Allied conferences, held in Yalta and Potsdam in 1945.