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''Relaunching''
a
United Europe?
by
Gene H. Hogberg
Under assertive French leadership, the flagging fort unes of the
Common Market are being revived. But more than
economic cooperation is required to produce European unity.
F
OR THE
t ime being at
least, the slide of the
10-nation Euro pea n
Commun ity into oblivion has
been halted.
French President Francois
Mitterrand now says that "a
very vigorous and vital re–
launching"
of
European un ity
can begin.
Not a minute too soon, many
experts believe. For many a year
the world's Jargest economic bloc
had been teetering on the brink of
dissolution. Two disastrous sum–
mits of the EC's heads of govern–
ment had collapsed, largely over
the issue of the size of Great Brit–
ain's contribution to the Communi–
ty budget.
Prime Minister Ma rgaret
Thatcher had insisted on a reduc–
tion in annual payments for her
country, plus a reform in tbe EC's
budget, which overwhelmingly
goes to subsidizing continental
farmers and has resulted in huge
surpluses of butter, beef, grains and
wine.
Mitterrand Clears t he Way
At the recent June summit, at Fon–
tainebleau, near París, a last-min–
ute agreement hammered out by
France, West Germany and Bri tain
settled the British payments dis–
pute. But more than that was
accompl ished, largely through the
2
etfor ts of French President Fran–
cois Mitterrand, who, observers
noted , had skillfully handled tbe
" Bri tish problem" in the last six
months in which he has held
the revolving presidential
chair of Community atfairs.
With the payments prob–
lem out of the way, the
assembled leaders ordered
the drafting of a single cus–
toms document for the
whole Community to re–
place the 70-odd documents
Europeans now need to sell
to one another.
Even though critics claim
the new form, if adopted, is
still too long and cumber–
some, it should speed up
border crossing delays,
which add an approximate 5
percent to the cost of Com–
munity - produ ced. goods.
The simple fact is, the Com–
mon Market is still a good
distance from being ' 'com–
mon."
Also, the 1O EC heads of
government agreed to chan–
nel more resources into joint indus–
trial projects instead of farm subsi–
dies, which now eat up about two
thirds of the EC budget in Brus–
se ls . Extra cash, reaching US
$5,000,000 ,000 ayear by 1986, will
be poured into ventures that
include telecommunications and
the launching of a European space
station.
The leaders hope tbat by such a
reorientation of priorities-even
though they expect howls from
farm interests- the Community
will be able to overcome what is
variously called "Europessimism"
and "Eurosclerosis." The terms
reflect the widespread belief among
Europe's leading industrialists that
Europe is slipping, perhaps irrevo–
cably, behind the Americans and
the J apanese in high technology–
based industry.
Early in the year the editors of
The PLAIN TRUTH