Countdown to European Unity

...Profound resentments over these budgetary inequities may have to be dealt with before Europe sans Fron tières looms into view...

...Additional friction might arise from the fact that police in some parts of the Community are better trained and more rigorous than in others...

...The benefits to be derived from a more integrated European Community, however, are expected to outweigh the drawbacks and difficulties...

...Visionaries see the movement of capital funds from wealthy to distressed areas as having a leveling effect that will cause pockets of poverty gradually to disappear...

...If all proceeds as planned, the barriers now dividing the member nations of the European Economic Community (EEC) will come down on New Year's Day of 1992, and the late Jean Monnet's guiding ideal of a unified Western Europe will be closer to realization than perhaps even he ever expected...

...The plan is for the poüce of each nation to cooperate with those of all the other EEC members in securing borders, much as police in Massachusetts work with police in California when circumstances require...

...In anticipation of 1992, Community representatives have held high-level discussions on economic matters with officials of the United States, China, the Soviet Union, and the Latin American nations...

...Now countries like Britain, where agriculture is highly mechanized, must make burdensome contributions in order to subsidize armies of small, less efficient farmers in Germany and France, as well as those in the southern member-states-traditionally impoverished and thus delighted to get paid to overproduce...

...Particularly troublesome is the prospect of European markets being made less accessible to foreign goods, if not closed altogether...

...Meanwhile, European foreign ministries are consulting closely on global politics, and on some issues have formulated Community foreign policy positions...

...Another difficulty standing in the way of fulfillment of the 1992 scenario is the potential danger that relaxing border controls will present...

...New passports, valid throughout the Community, will be phased in...

...The United States has supported the movement toward greater European unity from its postwar inception, hoping that a united Europe would be able to carry more of the burden of Western deterrence and defense vis-à-vis the USSR...

...This eagerness is understandable: After all, the Community will have an open domestic market of more than 320 million people...

...The CAP was originally designed to make Europe agriculturally self-sufficient following the devastation of World War II, and to lift the wretched living standards of the Continent's then vast farming population...

...The gigantic grain, butter, beef, and milk powder mountains, and the wine lake (400 million gallons and counting) created by the CAP are realities that won't go away...

...Movements that once vigorously opposed European unity, including the one within Britain's Labor Party, have largely fizzled out...

...A London company will be able to do business in Hamburg, Lille or Salonika with as little bureaucratic interference as it today encounters in Liverpool...

...In economic terms, a united Europe will be the largest and most dynamic entity in the world...

...and theUSSR as superpowers...

...Nor will the problems of the Common Agricultural Policy be easily or quickly remedied...

...The European Court of Justice has substantiated many of these complaints, but its rulings have not always induced the transgressor nations to mend their ways...

...But law enforcement officers throughout the Community are skeptical that such a system can contend with drug trafficking-which even the current, tighter border controls have failed to thwart-or terrorism...

...In time it will change the political complexion of the world...

...Consequently, though some parts of Europe have periodic rabies outbursts, Britain never does...

...Still, questions persist about whether Europe will be ready for the planned transformation...

...Differences of national policy enter the picture here, too...

...Even now companies in Belgium, Holland and the other richer countries in the north are accelerating exploitation of the markets of newer and poorer EEC members to the south-Spain, Greece and Portugal...

...Europe is scheduled to undergo its most far-reaching transformation since the days of the Holy Roman Empire...

...Virtually all border controls among the 12 Community members will be eliminated...

...For example, despite denials from Athens, it is widely believed that Greece simply does not care to guard as methodically against the entry of Middle East terrorists as, say, West Germany...

...New Year's Day 1992 may not see the implementation of all the revolutionary measures that are now scheduled, but there is no doubt that something approximating Jean Monnet's concept of a United States of Europe is in the cards...

...Warnings have been voiced that this may no longer be the case if border controls are relaxed...

...The indomitable Margaret Thatcher was rumored ready to block progress toward unity if soaring spending on the Community's controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was not brought under control...

...Pamphlets are being distributed and seminars held...

...Norman Gelb writes regularly for The New Leader on British affairs...

...The governments involved have appointed senior officials, some of them at the ministerial level, to the task of smoothing the path to the big day...

...She appears to be looking to the enormous advantages that could accrue to the trimmed-down British economy once the barriers in Europe fall...

...Obstacles to trade and restraints on economic competition will be removed by law...

...But at a Brussels summit last month the British Prime Minister proved surprisingly ready to compromise, backing away from a threatened showdown over reforming the Community's finances...

...Just storing these staggering quantities of surplus goods exhausts almost half the EEC's agricultural budget...

...The credentials of doctors, teachers and other professionals will be recognized throughout this new United States of Europe, though lawyers and regional specialists may be required to brush up on local practice...

...Complaints of violations have been made against every EEC country -with over 150 against France, although the government has been doing the most to prepare its businessmen for unity day...

...Before long, they predict, the entire EEC will become one vast, prosperous region with a per capita income exceeding that of the United States...

...Numerous steps are being taken to make sure Europe is ready for the great transition by the time 1992 rolls around...

...That support persists, but officials in Washington are increasingly worried by the economic challenge a united Europe would pose to America and the rest of the world...

...Labor will become increasingly mobile: An Italian carpenter will be free to practice his craft in Ireland and a Danish physical education teacher will be able to take a job in Belgium without bothering about residential or work permits...

...Government contracts will be thrown open to competition, and choosing the successful bidder will not be influenced by nationality within the EEC...

...With their economies meshed together, and a great deal at stake in keeping them that way, EEC member-states will inevitably view national rivalries as something to be avoided, and will tend to act more in unison on the international scene...

...As things stand, a pet dog or any other rabies-susceptible animal entering Britain must be quarantined for six months to guard against the chance that it is carrying the disease...

...Health concerns related to the scaling down of border controls have also surfaced...

...The shock of having to modify enshrined business practices to accommodate unrestricted crossborder competition may be too great for some of them to bear so soon...

...The impact on international relations could rank with the emergence of the U.S...

...There was widespread belief earlier this year that differences within the Community would make the 1992 unification deadline impossible to meet...

...The object, of course, is profit, but the implications are much broader...

...Much of the extensive Community legislation already enacted to lower the walls separating member nations has been more honored in the breach than in the observance...

...Restrictions for others seeking employment outside their native lands, already much reduced within the Community, will be limited only to language and skill requirements when applicable...

...Industrial standards, food labeling and health regulations will be made uniform...

...Pet-lovers caught by border inspectors trying to evade these controls are penalized severely...

...Each EEC nation has launched, or will soon launch, instructional programs alerting businessmen to the enormous opportunities that will be theirs...

...It is even possible that electrical plugs and sockets will be standardized, although that might be asking too much...