Neutrals on the Side-lines
From JOHN LAMBERT LUXEMBOURG
SINCE the Paris meeting experts in Brussels and the six capitals have been busy analysing the text of Mr. Heath's speech and the outline solutions which he proposed to the main prob- lems concerning Britain's membership of EEC. On Monday, at the beginning of their three-day meeting with a packed agenda of Community problems (ranging from the Turkish application for association to the projected common policy for pork and cereals, from the GATT negotia- tions to a campaign against tobacco mildew), the EEC Council had a first debate on the British position. On November 6 and 7 they will devote a day and a half to detailed preparations for the opening encounter of the negotiations proper, at ministerial level, on the 8th and 9th, after which the experts will be unleashed for a lengthy period of more or less permanent in- fighting at the technical level. If Mr. Heath in Paris finally convinced the Six of British good faith and readiness to accept in full the Treaty of Rome, this does not mean that the negotia- tions over the protocols and special arrange- ments will be any less tough. On the Common- wealth problem in particular the going will be hard from the start. For all the suspicions to the contrary, the British will be out to do their best for the Commonwealth and obtain con- cessions from the Six to compensate probable losses on the British market; but the French, for their part, will fight tooth and nail to prevent the extension to the Commonwealth of the preferences which their former overseas terri- tories, now the Associated African States, enjoy on the EEC market.
Meanwhile Britain's EFTA partners are seek- ing how best to fend for themselves. The Danes, who make no secret of their haste to get into EEC in order to play their part in shaping its agricultural policy, are having their preliminary meeting with the Six this week in Brussels. They will make no difficulties about accepting the Rome Treaty and will probably only ask for temporary concessions to protect the industries they have been systematically developing to reduce their former excessive dependence on the agricultural sector. If the British negotiations should lag, and the Danish ones run smoothly, even her loyalty to Britain and EFTA might hardly prevent Denmark from signing the Rome Treaty as soon as she can.
As for the `three neutrals'—Austria, Sweden and Switzerland—whose ministers met last week in Vienna, they are all willing and anxious to join in European economic integration through an 'adequate form of association' with the en- larged Common Market. What concerns them are the political implications, implicit or avowed, of the European Economic Community; and the aim of last week's meeting was to seek some sort of minimum denominator, common to the `traditional' neutrality of Switzerland, the 'paci- fist' neutrality of Sweden and the 'imposed' neutrality of Austria, which would enable them to solve the problem of their political relation- ship with EEC by one and the same formula. Not unnaturally the initiative for this came from Austria, who, because of the ambiguous nature of her neutrality and her dependence on •Rus- sian reactions, would be relieved to act in unison with her two partners. How far this is possible can hardly be revealed until the negotiations begin.
As for the economics of their association : the three countries will in any case have to negotiate about this on their own, because their special problems and their economic relations with the Six differ considerably. Their views diverge noticeably over timing. The Swedes, subject to internal pressure from industrial circles, would have liked to apply for association as early as next month. The Swiss, on the other hand, having suffered hardly at all from the effects of the E'FTAJEEC split, and still profoundly sceptical about French willingness to bring the British in, would prefer to wait and see how the Brussels negotiations progress before making any move. In the end the decision was taken that all three should formally apply to the Six, before the end of the year, to negotiate for asso- ciation. The Norwegians, too, whose eventual application will almost certainly be for mem- bership, are biding their time.
About the position of Portugal, as if by tacit agreement, not a word has been breathed on either side. In the last resort all the EFTA members are relying on the unequivocal words of the London declaration, made in June, by which the Seven bound themselves to sink or swim together, and not to conclude individual arrangements with the Six until satisfactory solutions had been found for each and all. Since Britain, Denmark and probably Norway will in any event have a say in the final arrangement as full members of EEC, and since there are purely physical limitations on the number of negotia-
tions the Six can carry on at the same time, it looks as though for the moment the neutrals will have to be content with watching from the side-lines. (The‘ same probably goes for Ireland, whose straightforward and early application for full membership has not a little embarrassed the Six. They are inclined to feel that for a rela- tively underdeveloped • country, not a member of NATO, association might be a more desir- able solution : but not wishing to slight the Irish, they have invited them first to a preliminary meeting, such as they have had with the British and the Danes, leaving the final solution to be worked out later.)
Inside the Six the European Parliamentary Assembly, meeting last week in Strasbourg, ex- pressed the now rather forlorn hope that the EEC Commission be entrusted with the nego- tiations on behalf of the Community, and the perhaps slightly less forlorn one that it, the Assembly, should be kept fully informed and should be consulted, as it noticeably was not in the case of the Greek association agreement, before anything definite is decided.
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