The Press FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1971. More than butter at stake in Europe

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32612, 21 May 1971, Page 8

The Press FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1971. More than butter at stake in Europe

The negotiations between Britain, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway and the European Economic Community concern more than butter, sugar, and national contributions to the funds of the Community; they involve the growth of a united and peaceful Europe, able to offer a host of benefits to the rest of the world. The point should be obvious enough; it has been all but lost sight of in what the " Guardian ” recently called the “ nitty-gritties of negotiation ”. The Dutch Ambassador to New Zealand (Mr H. C. Jorissen) performed a valuable service, in the address reported in yesterday’s issue, when he reminded bis audience that “what is at stake is neither a “question of an abstract character, nor simply the “price of butter and the cost of entry, but the “ establishment of a European Community capable of “dealing effectively with an overcharged agenda “containing problems on the solution of which our “future depends”.

Nor are the negotiations—as they sometimes appear—a private quarrel between Britain and France with New Zealand dairy products as the centre of disagreement. A far more fundamental questionnothing less than the future shape and character of Europe—is involved. Whether or.not Britain and the three smaller aspirants to E.E.C. membership succeed, a new form of political association is developing in Western Europe. Potentially, it may serve as a centre and a model for the growth of similar confederations elsewhere; it holds out the prospect of escape from the intense nationalisms which have divided the world since the Renaissance. The vision of Europe put forward after World War II by men such as Robert Schuman and Sir Winston Churchill was noble indeed. The reality, inevitably, is something less. A high degree of economic integration is being achieved; closer political association, whether in a league, a confederation, or even a full federation, has barely begun.

The process cannot go much further without wider participation than the six original members of the E.E.C. Britain is the most important nonCommunist country of Europe still outside it Four hundred years of separate development, often intensely nationalistic, have made the British suspicious of Europe. This insularity has made Europeans, not least the French, suspicious of Britain. It is no coincidence that France, most xenophobic of the Six, has shown the greatest reluctance to welcome an obvious rival for leadership of the Community. A truly united Europe, secure and outward-looking, remains a vision. The reality is fallible; a collection of States and politicians who frequently practise the self-interest which they call on others to discard. Hardly anyone yet puts Europe above all else. But this Europe, with its faults, exists and will grow. For Britain, in the longer view, the alternatives are to become part of its growth or to remain an “off“shore island” an important one, certainly, but decreasingly so. These issues have been submerged in the last few months amid the haggling over quotas, levies, and contributions. In Britain and France, let alone in New Zealand 12,000 miles away, there is little sense of the importance of the Community which is emerging. Yet the prospect for Europe outlined by Mr Jorissen contains enough grandeur to satisfy even the aspirations of France and Britain. The small print of the agreements which are being hammered out can hardly be ignored; millions of dollars are at stake. But even amid the concern felt in New Zealand for the effects of the outcome on this country, the sense of the historic purpose of the talks should not be overlooked or ignored. In the longer run New Zealand will stand to gain more from a wider confederation in Europe. The great tragedies of what Mr Jorissen called the “ last halfcentury of self-destruction” began there; out of tiie experience Europe has the chance to begin also an age of lasting peace and development.