THE OTHER EEC
WHATEVER the shortcomings of the EEC they are as nothing compared with those of Eastern Europe's 'economic com- munity', Comecon, which also holds a summit meeting this week. Whatever the national differences inside the EEC, they pale into insignificance beside those in Comecon. Whatever the 'technology gap' Opening up between Western Europe and Japan, it can hardly be wider than that Opening up between Eastern and Western Europe. Alarmed by this development, Mr Gorbachev is now pushing for closer in- tegration of Comecon, and (reversing a Previous Soviet position) for closer ties With the EEC. Eurocrats will be tempted; but their political masters in Milan should restrain them. Comecon is not in any real sense a European community, it is an Instrument of Soviet imperial control, and the EEC would be wrong to give it a credibility it does not otherwise enjoy. Comecon integration may be in the Soviet interest, but the West's interest is to see a further peaceful dis-integration of the Soviet bloc. Differentiation between the countries of Eastern Europe is the kernel of our Ostpolitik, and bilateral economic ties are one of the vital instruments of differentiation. So the EEC should deal directly with Comecon only insofar as this is essential to facilitate these bilateral ties (which is not very far). It should not play Mr Gorbachev's game.
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