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the European edition of
The Wal/
Street Journal
conducted a survey
of 200 chief executives repre–
senting the leading companies in 16
nations in Europe. Overall, re–
ported the editors, the survey pro–
duced "stark evidence that Eu–
rope's executives believe their con–
tinent has declined as a source of
technology leadership with the
U.S. maintaining its top position
and Japan gaining in importance."
"No European country," the
survey found, "ranks as the leading
source in any technological area, in
the executives' view."
Such a bleak future the Commu–
nity Jeaders hope to change by re–
orienting the EC's funding pro–
cesses.
Indicating the importance he
places on a Community "relaunch"
Mr. Mitterrrand also agreed, with
Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West
Germany, to end all customs
inspections at the Franco-German
border.
The French President has also
announced that he wants university
diplomas and credit requirements
October 1984
to be standardized, and a "Euro–
pean peace corps" organized for
assistance to the Third World.
President Mitterrand also wants
Europeans to sense, to a far greater
degree than befare, that they have a
European as well as national citizen–
ship. A standardized European pass–
port has already been agreed to in
principie by the
lO
governments,
and Mr. Mitterrand displayed the
French version at Fontainebleau,
saying it will be issued by next year.
The French leader also would
like to put new political momentum
into European policy-making by
establishing a political secretariat.
This body would be different from
the European Community commis–
sion in Brussels that is concerned
primarily with economic opera–
tions. A política! secretariat would,
in effect, be an embryonic Euro–
pean foreign ministry.
Greater Defense Cooperation
The French have been active in the
field of greater defense cooperation
in Europe as well. Since defense
matters líe outside the purview of
the European Community, such
efforts have taken place under the
aegis of the long-dormant Western
European Union.
The WEU is a mutual assistance
pact, predating N ATO, and which
links France, West Germany, Italy,
Britain and the three Benelux
states. It was originally established
to supervise West German rearma–
ment after World War H.
The French apparently are look–
ing to this revived body as a kind of
European inner-circle tbat will be
the place to do business on cooper–
ative arms-production projects, as
weU as the exchange of intelligence
The 10 heads of state or government
of the nations of the European
Community met at the Cbateau de
Fontainebleau, near París, on June 25
and 26, 1984. Host of the summit
conference was French President
Francois Mitterrand, center of photo,
left. In keeping with tradition, the
leaders posed, witb tbeir ministers and
counselors, for a group portrait in
front of the newly restored Louis XV
wing of the Cbateau de Fontainebleau.
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