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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 8, 1984
not what the EEC's founders meant it to be, but that is how it has
turned out. The common agricultural policy is a high-cost system
of getting rid of marginal producers to the taxpayer's benefit.
The prime mover for greater cooperation in Europe at the present time is
President Mitterrand of France. At the final session of the European Par
liament (before its June 17 continentwide elections) M. Mitterrand took the
legislators by surprise with a stirring appeal for a treaty on European
political unity. Implicit in his remarks too, was a warning to Britain that
Europe was ready to move forward without her. Here is how Don Cook of the
LOS ANGELES TIMES (May 25) analyzed the Mitterrand appeal:
President Francois Mitterrand, in a vigorous statement of con
fidence in Europe's future, declared Thursday that France is
ready for formal discussions of a new treaty of European politi
cal unity.
Addressing the•..European parliament...,Mitterrand
said: "We are again in a phase when destiny is in the balance.
For too long we have been held back by absurd quarrels. Europe
can only become more than a dream if it gets beyond petty squab
bling••••" He proposed to take this process a step further
through "preparatory conversations leading to a conference of
interested countries" on a new political treaty.
In a broad hint that some of the Common Market countries could be
left out of such a treaty of political unity if they did not wish
to join--Britain, for example--the French president said: "One
hears talk of a two-speed Europe or a Europe of variable geom
etry. If need be, we will have to adapt, but not .Q.Y undermining
the central structure on which the community rests."
The thrust of Mitterrand's speech was that Europe is moving to
ward unity despite the British problem. "I am too confident of
our history to allow that we could decline. But we must not act
too late," he said.
Writing in the May 30 issue of WASHINGTON TIMES, staff writer Peter Almond
probed behind the rather urgent nature of Mr. Mitterrand's policies:
In a key debate over Europe's political future, French President
Francois Mitterrand is pushing urgent and specific proposals for
greater continental cooperation in military and economic
fields.•.•
France already has pushed for a new European defense community
through the Western European Union. Last week, Mr. Mitterrand
issued a call for renewed European political integration based on
the draft Treaty of European Union, whose proposed Council of
Union would decide matters by a simple majority, instead of the
required unanimity which now is paralyzing the community ••••
Observers say that behind the French effort lies a sense of alarm
felt by Mr. Mitterrand over U.S. exasperation with European
defense effort, the continuing woes of the French economy and an
increasing French sense of declining European impact in world
affairs. Some observers also say that France is increasingly
concerned with the rising tide of European neutralism-
particularly in Germany and the Netherlands.