Call for finish of E.E.C. negotiations this year

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32531, 15 February 1971, Page 13

Call for finish of E.E.C. negotiations this year

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— i Copyright)

LONDON, February 14.

The conclusion of negotiations to enlarge the European Economic Community by the end of this year was urged in the final declaration of the Parliamentary Council of the European Movement, issued in London yesterday.

Such a decision was of the highest importance for the future of the continent, the council decided.

The call came at the i end of a two-day confer- ] ence attended by about ( 90 members of Parlia- < ment from the six Com- ! mon Market countries l and from the four ap- t plicant nations —Britain, < Norway, Denmark, and ( Ireland. < The declaration also ’ called for an expansion of the functions of the ‘ Community to embrace , foreign policy and de- < fence. * It was essential for an f appropriate Common Mar- r ket body to carry out a continuous, independent study of foreign affairs and defence from a collective European standpoint, the council decided.

It would then give individual Governments advice on which they could base European policies. The farther Europe advanced towards political union, the declaration continued, the more necessary would be the effective Democratic control over budgetary policies.

Greater power

“The power of the European parliament must therefore be enlarged and its authority increased by the introduction of direct elections based on universal suffrage,” the declaration said. Earlier yesterday a Conservative M.P., Mr Norman St John Stevas, suggested that if Britain entered the Common Market, the expanded European parliament should have its seat in London.

Mr Harold Lever, the Labour Party’s spokesman on Europe, told delegates that if present negotiations failed because of inadequate realisation or respect for each other’s problems, then not just Europe’s prospects but those of the world would suffer a severe setback. The British Prime Minister (Mr Heath) today urged a return to fresh thinking about the type of institutions

needed to govern a united Europe. His speech contrasted sharply with the tone of an address by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Wilson). Mr Wilson warned the Six against “highway robbery” tactics in handling Britain’s entry bid. Mr Heath told the council to discard tired quarrels and devise new institutions compatible with Europe’s drive for unity. “The arguments of federation or confederation have long seemed sterile and unworthy of the past of the Community. We should be thinking in fresh terms of fresh institutions as the founding fathers thought when they began the creation

lof this work in the early 19505,” he said. I Informants said Mr Heath was not thinking of specific structures and was mainly concerned that builders of Europe should keep an open mind during talks on the enlargement of the Community. Labour warning Mr Wilson said that Europe must resist the idea that only rigid rules of uniformity can achieve a closer Europe. But Mr Wilson’s speech was marked by some plain speaking. He advised the Six against using “highwayman tactics to extract from the British wayfarer into Europe all that is in his purse and more.” He said he wished a fair wind to Britain’s entry talks, but added: “Should the E.E.C. prove by a rejection of the application of genuine and sincere applicants that it prefers to cultivate its own agricultural cabbage patch, then it cannot ask the rest of the world to accept subsidies on the exports of its surplus cabbages.” Mr Anthony Barber, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at a luncheon session, said that Britain faced a real problem in the transitional costs of membership. Supporting Britain’s offer to pay an initial 3 per cent towards the Community’s financial budget, Mr Barber said he did not think it

should be difficult for the Common Market to Heal with the transitional question.

But it was a real and serious matter for Britain, which I was bound, to be a net contributor to the Community] from the outset. In fact, said! Mr Barber, Britain’s proposed contribution in the first-year would involve a payment larger than any member of the Six had been asked to make until they had been Community members for eight years. “Not drag” Mr Barber said it was no good Britain’s friends saying not to worry if the entrance fee seemed heavy because the Community would bail Britain out. “We do not want to be bailed out,” said Mr Barber, once Britain’s chief Common Market negotiator. “We are not joining the Community in order to impoverish ourselves or to be a drag on the other members.”