Without . any right
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said at Luxembourg that it would be impossible to guarantee that Britain would be able to bring the pound back to a fixed parity by the end of the year. This week, at the conclusion of the routine meeting between France and Germany under the Franco-German treaty, President Pompidou made it clear that unless the pound was fixed, then there would be no enlargeinent of the Common Market of the Six. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and thus the Prime Minister are being told what to do by the French President who declared: On currency problems we finally agreed that European economic and monetary union is our fundamental aim. Also fundamental for us are the agreements already arrived at in this regard, including the agreement of March 21 this year, which for us remains a guiding principle, a doctrine.
This naturally implies adherence to fixed parities. It also implies that countries which, out of whatever circumstances, saw themselves compelled to deviate from these must go back to fixing parities again.
That is to say, this is the indispensable and essential basis for European economic and monetary union, and this basis must exist before it finally comes to the point of expanding the Community.
This is brutally clear. We will not be able to say that France had not made its conditions known to us should we crawl back on to a fixed parity, join the enlarged Community, and then discover that our economy in the economicand monetary union which France desires was being ruined in order to shore up the Common Agricultural Policy which France so much loves and so much benefits from. M. Pompidou is spelling it out. "All right " he is saying, "enjoy your last few months of brittle freedom; it will not last, You will never again be free to let your currency float to its natural level; nor will you again be able to devalue or revalue without our consent. You have used your float to destroy the sterling area: that is good. The pound is no longer a reserve currency. That is good. There is nothing special about sterling. Have your final fling: but you must come back into line before we will let you join us; and when you join us you will never be able to disentangle yourselves: our economic and monetary unionrwill see to that."
If the Foreign Office, in its conceit and bewilderment, has thought that, once inside the Common Market, the United Kingdom would be able to detach West Germany from France, it should think again. The Franco-German Treaty of friendship has time and time again shown itself to be the Most prized jewel in Bonn's diplomacy. Bonn will tell London that its sympathies are. with the British: indeed the retiring Minister of Economics and Finance in Bonn, Dr Schiller, congratulated Britain on its float a few days ago. But once President Pompidou had closeted himself with Herr Brandt, the Germans started singing a different tune. De Gaulle conferred upon Adenauer, when the two men signed the Franco-German Treaty, respectability and the moral forgiveness of Europe. Germany will not forget this. Under no foreseeable circumstances will Germany endanger its friendship with France.
It is right that this should be so. It ensures that France will not be 'the odd man out' in the Common Market whenever what France regards as an issue of fundamental importance arises. Continental stability requires nothing less. The corollary, of course, is that the British role will be, if not subservient, certainly subsidiary. The parliamentary sovereignty which the House of Commons has been throwing away during the past months is matched by the executive sovereignty which we are about to lose. The necessary and sensible executive decisions taken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer a fortnight ago will have to be reversed before we can enter Europe, and will not be allowed to be taken again once we are in. What do our leaders think they are doing to permit, let alone to welcome, -such abrogation of powers and abdication of responsibility? We have said that they take such steps without consent. They also take them without any right.
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