Talks ‘extremely good’

Press, 12 September 1981, Page 9

Talks ‘extremely good’

NZPA-Reuter London President Francois Mitterrand of France has wound up talks with the British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) that could herald a new era in relations between London and Paris. The French Socialist intellectual and the unbending British Conservative haye been getting on famously and after an initial two-hour private meeting yesterday British officials said the talks had gone extremely well. A French delegation spokesman said both leaders spoke out with complete frankness on the vexed question of how the European

Common Market. is • to develop. British hopes expressed before the talks that Mr Mitterrand would prove more pragmatic on Europe than his predecessor. Valery Giscard d’Estaing, appeared to be justified — at least so far. The French spokesman said the two agreed that Common Market governments should draw up a full balance sheet of Community operations before discussing reforms of the Community budget and what Britain sees as the wasteful common agricultural policy with its high subsidies to farmers. French recognition of

Britain’s demands that changes be made in the present E.E.C. set up was emphasised in a British television interview by the French External Affairs Minister (Mr Claude Cheysson). “Of course I understand that you say that your payments to the Community are too high, too heavy. All right, that must be discussed,” he told the 8.8. C. On C.A.P. subsidies, he added: “I would like to see a more intelligent support to farmers. In many cases the support to farmers is, well, very close to absurdity.”