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PAGE 12
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 30, 1984
The Irish delegation also disapproved of a key element of the reform pack
age--a cap on milk production. The EEC is confronted with growing sur
pluses of butter, skimmed milk and cheese. Yet for the Irish, a reduction
in milk production is a hot political issue. Milk products account for 19%
of Ireland's total GNP. Milk is five times more important to Ireland's
economy than in the EEC generally. Nevertheless, it was the British who
bore the brunt of the criticism. Here is how the NEW YORK TIMES, also on
March 23, reported the summit failure:
They used to call France the "sick man of Europe," but now it is
Europe itself that seems sick. Summing up another failure b�its
10 heads of government to solve the European Economic Community's
pressing and fundamental problems, President Francois Mitterrand
commented late Tuesday night: "The Europe of the 10 is not dead.
But it has suffered another blow, and the more blows it suffers,
the more its health deteriorates and the harder it will be for it
to get well."
It was a painful moment for Mr. Mitterrand. For three months he
had searched for a solution, pouring more time, energy and
political will into the Common Market than any other French
pol�tician in decades. Even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had
praised his efforts, but the result was essentially the same as
at the last summit meeting, in Athens--stalemate--and it had the
same basic cause: � national leader's unwillingness to submerge
what� described as the vital national interest in the larger
cause.
On both occasions, the leader was Mrs. Thatcher. But •..it is a
problem as old as the community itself. Indeed, the community
owes much of its present shape to the insistence of another na
tionalist, Charles de Gaulle, on the principle of unanimity as a
safeguard against the imposition of policies on France. Without
that principle, Britain would have been outvoted 9-to-l Tuesday
night and the Market's. crisis would be over.
But it is not over, and the recriminations began at once. Prime
Minister Andreas Papandreou of Greece said the community would be
better off without Britain, Prime Minister Bettino Craxi of Italy
said Mrs. Thatcher had paralyzed the community, and a Dutch
official, giving voice to a usually unspoken but pervasive
feeling within the group, said the British "are undermining the
most important thing, the West German commitment to the West,
edging them toward neutralism." The conference broke down when
Chancellor Helmut Kohl insisted that West Germany could not
afford the additional contributions that a rebate to Britain
would impose•••.
Paradoxically, the breakdown came at a time when Western European
leaders, including Mrs. Thatcher, are more convinced than ever
that they cannot solve their problems acting alone, at a time
when those problems are worse than in years and at a time when
faith in the United States is at a low point •... The sudden rise
of Gary Hart, whose picture was on the cover of three of the four
major European news magazines this week, has reawakened all the
old anxieties about the American electoral system. This is not