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The main beneficiaries are the farmers of France, who chiefly benefit from the artificially high prices set by the Market. The big losers are the Germans, who agreed to foot 28% of the agricultural bill in return for a wider market for their industrial goods. The resuit of the subsidies has been a dizzying upsurge in production and the creation of mountainous surpluses—including a 425,000-ton "Butterberg" and 8,000,000 tons of wheat. Merely to store the surplus farm products costs the Six $400,000 a day.
The French are wary of any change in agricultural policy and are determined to take that matter up before anything else. Certainly Pompidou has enough political problems to handle without having to worry about a bigger rebellion among farmers. Consequently, he is anxious to come away from The Hague with a guarantee that the subsidy system for French farmers will be continued. But West Germany is urging that other accommodations be worked out. The summit delegates will probably compromise by extending the present system for one more year while they work out something better.
The Great Federator. After agriculture has been disposed of, the French may then be amenable to discussing the issue that many Eurocrats count as the most important confronting the summiteers: expanding the EEC beyond its present membership. Applications are pending from Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway. Of the postulants, Britain is obviously the most important, and sentiment is growing among ordinary Europeans for British admission. A recent Paris Match poll showed 52% of Frenchmen saying yes. Officials at the Quai d'Orsay let it be known that the French were going to The Hague "to begin the process of getting Britain into the Common Market."
The British themselves, on the other hand, have begun to have second thoughts. Two weeks ago, a Times of London poll found 54% of them opposed to joining the Common Market. Because trade balances have improved and the pound is stronger, Britain has emerged from its slough of economic despond. "We no longer face the challenge of Europe cap in hand, " Prime Minister Harold Wilson told a cheering Labor Party meeting in Brighton two months ago. "Europe needs us just as much as, and many would say more than, we need Europe." What worries the Prime Minister and other Britons, for one thing, is that membership would bring an immediate and politically damaging rise in consumer prices. Butter costs 48¢ a pound in England today and eggs 50¢ a dozen; in Paris, butter costs $1.08, eggs 84¢.
Britain has other reservations about joining a union in which it has sought membership for so long. One is the fear that Britain will be drawn into a political assembly in which ancient forms and traditions will disappear. Actually, the prospect is remote. Political union was the goal toward which Jean Monet and other Pan-Europeans sought to steer the Common Market more than a decade ago. The threat of the Soviet army perched across nearby borders made planners anxious to achieve union by any means. Today, however, the Russian threat appears to have diminished markedly; so has the possibility of war between old rivals, particularly France and Germany. These new realities have very much lessened the pressures for political confederation.