MR WILSON’S PROPOSAL

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30764, 31 May 1965, Page 19

MR WILSON’S PROPOSAL

Unfavourable Reaction (Special Crspdt. N.Z.P..4.) LONDON, May 30. ' The Six might not approve Mr Harold Wilson’s proposal for a joint coun- I eil of ministers linking the European Free Trade Association with the Common Market, according to Mr Luns, the Dutch Foreign Minister. One difficulty, he said, was I that the Common Market does not regard E.F.T.A. as an equal. This is the first highlevel reaction of the six Common Market members to the Wilson proposal. Dr. Luns said: “I have taken note with great interest of what has happened in Vienna. I see in it an attempt on the part of the British Government to try to prevent the widening of the gap between the two groups. Britain is trying to move closer to the Six. “But I wonder whether this is the best approach. I am not quite sure whether the reply of the Six will be as favourable as seems to be expected. “I don't want to be unduly | pessimistic, but it is not cer-i tain that the proposed joint council can be created. It re-| quires the political will.” He said it might have been easier to make such a lineup if E.F.T.A. could have been built on the same lines as the Common Market, and with the same sort of rules and institutions.

He expects the Common Market Council of Ministers to consider the Wilson proposal at its meeting in Brussels on June 14. As the council will have before it major problems concerned with its own development, there may be little time to discuss the British proposals in detail, he said.