IBERIA JOINS THE MARKET: At the end of last week, on March 30, the European Community heads of state and government took the last steps to open the way for Spain and Portugal to enter the EC on January 1, 1986. A compromise was worked out with Greece whereby it will be granted compensation for expected product competition from the two Iberian countries. Two other Mediterranean nations, France and Italy, were also granted adjustment aid, but it was Athens' objections which had been most difficult to deal with. The following excerpts from an editorial in the April 3, 1985 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR give an overview of the impact of the expansion of the EC from ten to twelve next year:
The admission of Portugal and Spain into the European Common Market marks an important historical turning point for Europe.... A new 12-nation Common Market, instead of the current 10-nation market, will eventually become one of the largest cohesive trading communities in the world, with a combined population of over 325 million people. Moreover, the linkup — when it becomes official early next year — will cement most of affluent and industrial northern and western Europe with the less affluent and more agricultural regions of southern Europe. The linkup also provides western Europe an important new political and economic "bridge" to North Africa, in the sense that the Iberian Peninsula — culturally and historically — has as much looked southward over the centuries to the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa as to the European Continent itself....
The admission of the two nations into the Common Market will not come without major challenges for the rest of the trading community. The two nations are among the poorer nations of Europe. Both have high unemployment. That means that the rest of the Economic Community will presumably have to provide special financial assistance for the two nations over time. Moreover, both are major agricultural producers. It was this latter element that led Greece for so long to oppose their entry into the Common Market....
Will the inclusion of the somewhat poorer heavily agricultural nations of southern Europe impede Europe's movement toward unification? The initial impetus for the Common Market began with the industrial nations of Europe. The nature of the trading community has thus changed substantially since 1957.... Still, it is hard to discount the significance of the Common Market's new linkage with Portugal and Spain. How does one measure a historic milestone? Many political rulers over the centuries have dreamed of a United Europe. The Continent is still a long way from such a vision. But all the same, being able to drive from Paris east into West Germany, or southeast into Italy, and now, southwest into the Iberian Peninsula, through a common trading community, must be considered no little achievement in the long march of European history.
For Spain, the entry into the Community is even more of a political milestone than an economic one. It marks the end of Spain's long semi-isolation from the rest of Europe. An interesting analysis of this was published in the April 2, 1985 LOS ANGELES TIMES. Written by Stanley Meisler, it was entitled, "Spain Swept by Euphoria on Entry to Common Market":
RONCESVALLES, Spain — Here in a famous pass through the Pyrenees Mountains that had long been considered a southern border of Europe, it is easy to understand why Spaniards are treating their impending entry into the European Community as a momentous step in their history.
A kind of euphoria has raced through the political life of Spain ever since the announcement at the end of last week of the agreement on the entry of Spain and Portugal. King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia honored Foreign Minister Fernando Moran and his negotiating team with a reception at their palace. Juan Carlos spoke movingly of "the emotion I feel both as a Spaniard and as a King.”...
ABC, the most influential right-wing newspaper in Madrid, headlined its main editorial "A Historic Day." El Pais, the most influential left-wing newspaper in Madrid, headlined its main editorial "Hallelujah for Europe." ABC said the entry ranked with such events in 20th Century Spanish history as the Civil War and the restoration of democracy. El Pais said that entry will "rupture traditional isolation that has been hanging around our necks since the religious wars" of the Middle Ages....
As far as Spain is concerned, the entry into the Community, including the Common Market, has little to do with economics but everything to do with history and psychology. At long last, Spaniards can feel themselves part of Europe....
The history of separation was reinforced in the 20th Century by 40 years of dictatorship under Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Franco, the only fascist dictator to survive World War II, was the pariah of Europe, and Spain became more isolated than ever. Many Spaniards now feel that full entry into the European Community — a first concrete step into Europe — will consecrate the democratic system that has taken hold in Spain since Franco's death in November, 1975.
A feature article in the April 2, 1985 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, written by Kathy White, probed both the historical significance of Spain's acceptance into the contemporary Western European family of nations as well as its expected problems of adjustment to the EC system:
Seven hundred years of Moorish presence, 100 years as a supreme world power, 400 years of darkness and isolation, and now it can be said: Europe. That is how many Spaniards see the main landmarks of their history....
The Socialist government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, all the political parties, the press, and it seems most of those Spaniards who have been abroad have hailed the event as an ineluctable [inevitable] step in Spain's development. However,... many Spaniards, for whom Europe is a hazy concept anyway, are beginning to wonder what the benefits of membership are going to be. The first point that seems to have made an impact is the down-to-earth fact that prices will go up owing to the EC's system of value-added tax.
"Our small businesses are already sinking. What's going to happen when that tax is added? I'm not thrilled. I'm plain worried," says Jose Cepero, who runs a small household goods store in Madrid. "I trust the government knows what it got us into. They didn't tell us what it's all about, and the people simply don't know," he adds. For the most part, the daily press barrage of technicalities in the negotiations has failed to contribute a clearer picture of Europe....
Most likely to benefit from accession will be Spain's agriculture, although profits may be marginal as Spain already exports 50 percent of its fruits and vegetables to Europe.... Accession will be felt most by Spain's industry. Whereas EC markets were already opened to Spain under a 1970 preferential trade agreement, the reverse was not true. Now Spain will have to lower its barriers, introduce a value-added tax, and modernize production.... Accession will mean the moment of truth for the small and medium-sized enterprises that dominate the Spanish economy....
On another level, the free movement of workers throughout Europe will give Spanish society a new perspective. Manuel Marin, Spain's secretary of state for European affairs, says: "Spaniards will be able to go all over Europe.... Our society, which has long been isolated...will gain."
The other morning I had an interesting experience via my shortwave radio. At about 6:10 am I came across an English-language commentary regarding the entry of Spain and Portugal into the EC. It was a very favorable report, and expressed the hopes that the growth of the EC could lead to a more unified Europe. After the report was finished came the announcement that the audience was tuned to "Radio Beijing." It's obvious that the Chinese still advocate a strong Europe to counter balance the Soviets. This should dampen somewhat the speculations that the Chinese and Russians, under Mr. Gorbachev, will quickly mend their fences. While there is some movement in this direction, the Chinese are being very cautious toward both superpowers. Because Beijing has opened up considerably toward Washington, Chinese leaders want to show some attention to Moscow as well so as not to project a pro-U.S. position.
This third expansion of the Common Market (Britain, Ireland and Denmark joined on January 1, 1973 and Greece on January 1, 1981) raises the old question again of whether the Community is becoming essentially ungovernable. In this regard a committee was set up by the EC last year to make recommendations to streamline the Community's functions. It has been reported that the committee, headed by former Irish Foreign Minister James Dooge, suggests that the right of individual EC countries to veto Common Market policies should be much more strictly limited. Such a policy would be strenuously opposed by some members, most notably the British. But it is believed that both the French and the German views are much more in line with the Dooge committee recommendations regarding majority rather than 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 insufficient 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 TELEGRAPH:
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 abolition of the national veto we shall be heading for the "two-tier" or "variable geometry" Community, since there is no 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 reluctant to give up the veto since on these issues they were able to block legislation 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.
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