WESTERN EUROPE
Out of the ashes and gutted cities of World War II, idealists tried to create a united Europe by means of a political idea: the Council of Europe. They failed. Then came the hardheaded soldiers and diplomats who wanted to "build Europe" through a European army in a common uniform—and in the ugly, fruitless debate over EDC, all the idealism almost went out of the European dream. Last week, somewhat to their surprise, Europeans found themselves being offered a third chance to build Europe. This time the approach was economic, and, surprisingly enough, the chances were good.
For nearly a year, in a chateau outside Brussels, a small corps of economists, technicians and bureaucrats have been at work to establish a common market (goods and workers moving as freely as between California and New York) among the six nations—France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg—which belong to the European Coal and Steel Community. These planners have the backing of every government involved, and they mean business. Their plan calls for:
¶Creating a common market of 160 million people.
¶Cutting tariffs between the six nations by 30% in the next four years, and gradual elimination, over a maximum period of 15 years, of all tariffs and import quotas between them.
¶Establishing, during the same period, common tariffs against outside nations at an average level lower than France's, higher than the Low Countries'.
¶Abolishing discriminatory transportation charges, such as higher rates for goods originating in another country.
¶Permitting free movement of labor, so that labor-hungry areas such as Germany's Ruhr can sop up some of Italy's 2,000,000 unemployed.
¶Permitting free movement of capital, thus making it easier for European industrialists to invest their money where it will be most productive.
¶Equalizing corporate taxes and working conditions. (France, whose cradle-to-grave social security system is the most costly in Europe, is demanding that other nations "harmonize" their welfare systems, overtime rates, etc., with hers.)
Open Windows. Only a few points remain to be hammered out to make the Common Market a reality, and, barring "unforeseen catastrophes," its sponsors hope to have the Common Market treaty ready for signing by the end of February. Last week French Premier Guy Mollet, who was cagily insisting that he must have parliamentary approval "in principle"before he signed the treaty, launched a full-fledged debate on the plan in France's National Assembly.
Predictably, the most vocal opponents of French participation in the Common Market were the Communists (who dismissed the whole thing as a "Vatican conspiracy") and the right wing led by ex-Premiers Antoine Pinay, Paul Reynaud, Edgar Faure and Joseph Laniel. The bitterest—and most surprising—attack was delivered by ex-Premier Pierre Mendes-France, the man who once talked boldly of "opening the windows" of the French economy. Now Mendes, whose political influence has greatly diminished, argued that opening the windows so high would drive out French capital and bring in unemployed.