Brussels Talks At Brink Of Failure

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30043, 30 January 1963, Page 11

Brussels Talks At Brink Of Failure

(NJI PA -Reuter—Copyright) BRUSSELS, January 29. The Common Market countries will meet again in Brussels today amid growing feelings, in conference quarters that the 15-month-old negotiations on Britain’s entry into Europe are on the verge of collapse. Conference sources said that tonight might well see the end of the complex negotiations, which began with such high hopes and enthusiasm on October 10, 1961, in Paris.

The turn towards the brink of failure seemed to have been reached last night, when a West- German compromise proposal to save the talks failed to alter the French determination to call for an immediate suspension of the negotiations, conference sources revealed.

Britain’s chief negotiator (Mr Heath) remained on the sidelines yesterday while France and her five partners, who support early .British entry, battled’ among themselves. But today he was expected to be called in by the Six to be told of the outcome of their long wrangle.

If Use talks break up tonight, then Mr Heath will probably fly back to London tomorrow to report to his Cabinet colleagues. The French Foreign Minister (Mr Couve de Murville) plans to leave tonight for Paris, where he has an appointment with Presidenit Kennedy’s special representative for trade negotiations, Mr Christian Herter. He told reporters after last night’s session of the Six that the meeting would probably end tonight. The Dutch Foreign Minister (Dr. Luns) said “It is still very bad. There is no progress. I am not at all optimistic.” But the West German Foreign Minister (Dr. Schroeder observed that he had not given up hope as long as discussions were continuing. He is due to have a private meeting with Mr Couve de Murville early today. Reviewing yesterday’s talks in Brussels, Reuter’s correspondent quoted diplomatic observers as having said that the failure of Britain’s Common Market entry bid had become almost a certainty by last night France yesterday proved unrelenting in her demand that Britain’s entry negotiations should be immediately suspended. The correspondent said that Mr Couve de Murville had poured cold water on a West German compromise proposal aimed at getting the Common Market Executive Commission to draw up a

progress report on the talks. Mr Couve de Murville had refused to accept the commission’s terms of reference —which would make it clear that the negotiations with Britain were still in being, the correspondent said. Instead, the French Foreign Minister had proposed that the commission should consider the wide implications of admitting new members and associate members to the community and report back to the Six Governments.

This proposal would have occupied the commission for several months, while the conference with Britain was in suspense, observers noted. However, unless there was an unexpected change in the French attitude, most diplomats in Brussels were now prepared to consider

the negotiations at an end, the correspondent said. The Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr Paul-Henri Spaak, last night summed up yesterday’s diplomatic battle as “a bad day.” He told reporters the Six agreed on the principle of a mandate to be given to the "Common Market’s Executive Commission to draw up a balance sheet of assets and liabilities in the 15-month-old negotiations on Britain’s entry into Europe. But he added dejectedly: “You know what it means when people agree in principle. This means that they do not agree on the rest.” He also said that even if the Six agreed to give “some mandate” to the commission, they were miles from agreeing on the nature and scope of the mandate itself.

Mr Spaak later said he had “little hope” for a happy end to the Brussels talks. He added sadly: “AH this could have been foreseen. This was a forego: e conclusion.” A Belgian spokesman explained that the French wished that an “encyclopaedic mandate,” covering an extremely large field, should

be given to the commission. This meant that the commission would have months of work to do. But France’s five Common Market partners thought that about

weeks should be

three weeks should be enough. Quick Decision Coll The “New York Times” today called on the Common Market countries to give Britain a quick decision on whether she would be allowed into the Common

Market. The newspaper, in an editorial prepared for its United States West Coast and Paris

editions but not published in New York because of a newspaper strike, said the Brussels negotiations might end with a quick victory for General de Gaulle, who was anxious to snuff out, once and for all, Britain’s proposed membership.

the ot^? r members of the European Economic Comrnuniity are determined to postpone the day of reckonmg by means of a new study, “If this merely prolongs the agony for Britain, then she would be better off with the quick, if harsh, action of

the general’s guillotine,'* the newspaper said. “The negotiations must not be allowed to drag, on indefinitely, while Britain is forced to mark time.

“Instead, the Six should set a firm and realistic date for giving Britain their decision, affording her an opportunity to prepare for the worst. This is the least that the Common Market can do, in fairness and decency,” the editorial said.

French Offer T Russia ?

o (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. The United States State Department said today it knew nothing of a reported “grand design” by President de Gaulle, calling for the withdrawal of American

troops from Europe and the demilitarisation of the Soviet “satellite” countries The report, in a Norwegian newspaper, said the French leader had proposed sueh an arrangement to Moscow as part of a plan to construct a “new order" in Europe.