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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 5, 1985
unanimous voting, of enhanced powers for the European Parliament and of the
setting up of a political secretariat attached to the EC Council of
Ministers. The FINANCIAL TIMES of London, in its issue of March 25, 1985,
reported:
If the EEC summit in Milan in June ended in failure or made insuf
ficient progress, French officials say it is not ruled out that
France and Germany would launch their own initiative [for greater
political harmony].... But while nobody knows what is in their
leaders' minds, among the wild cards mentioned are a move towards
joint FFr/D-mark currency or the revival of a French-German union
to which other states could adhere.
Periodically there are rumors of a desire to create a "two-tier" Community,
with the original six members (France, West Germany, Italy and Benelux)
setting a faster economic and political pace, leaving the poorer countries
plus the troublesome British behind. The issue of a "two-tier" Europe was
examined in the lead article (editorial) in the March 26, 1985 DAILY TELE
GRAPH:
Do President Mitterrand and Chancellor Kohl mean what they say
about the ripeness of the moment for a new advance toward a more
genuinely supra-national Community to leave the laggards and the
doubters on the fringes?
Word has gone out from Paris that President Mitterrand is minded
to tear up the "Luxembourg compromise" by which his predecessor
President De Gaulle obliged his partners to accept the concept of
the national veto where "overriding national interests" were
deemed to be at stake, and to restore the original concept of the
founding fathers by which the Community would come to decisions
binding on the membership by weighted majority voting••••
If the French and Germans prove to be in earnest about the aboli
tion of the national veto we shall be heading for the "two-tier"
or "variable geometry" Community, since there is� prospect that
either [Britain's] Prime Minister or Parliament would accept the
surrender of national sovereignty that would be involved.
The editorial writer reveals, with recent key examples regarding fishing
and agriculture, that both the French and the Germans themselves are reluc
tant to give up the veto since on these issues they were able to block leg
islation they deemed went against their national interests. Nevertheless,
the issue of weighted majority voting will continue to come up. If it is
adopted one day, it could rip apart the Community as it now exists, with
Britain for sure thrust into an outsider position, and perhaps Denmark too.
With these two northern, Protestant-cultured nations out, and Spain and
Portugal in, integrated Europe would take on much more of a continental,
Catholic flavor.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau