Thatcher at Odds with Europe
GELB, NORMAN
REVERBERATIONS IN LONDON Thatcher at Odds with Europe BY NORMAN GELB London Like a fetus in the final stages of gestation, the European Community (EC) is rapidly assuming the form its...
...A short while ago it would not have caused her so much consternation, because any EC nation could veto major decisions...
...There comfort is drawn from believing the fragmentation of the Soviet empire is a sign the world is in the grip of a new wave of nationalism that will not only bring freedom to the Baltic States (et al...
...A columnist for the London Standard recently wrote, "I know people who would sooner vote for Pol Pot than for [Labor Party Leader] Neil Kinnock who say they have had it with Thatcher...
...As fellow European heads of state know only too well, Margaret Thatcher is not one to suffer grievances in silence...
...and entitle all citizens to "social protection" (unemployment insurance, welfare payments, etc...
...This has gratified many Britons but has heightened the trepidation of, among others, the feisty Prime Minister...
...Thatcher has said that such participation will not occur until Britain has determined "the appropriate circumstances prevail...
...In return, he would probably want London to show some movement toward joining the European Monetary System...
...Most economists, by contrast, believe that if Britain were associated with the European Monetary System the heavy pressure on the pound would be alleviated and interest rates would go down...
...Major contends that both in its compliance and its recalcitrance, Britain is setting the pace for the proper functioning of a united Europe...
...Those who would like to see integration blocked or reversed fail to recognize how deeply intertwined the British and Continental European economies already are...
...The EC cannot create a unified market, she asserts, without regard for its workers...
...Norman Gelb, the NL's London correspondent, is the author most recently of Dunkirk: The Complete Story of the First Step in the Defeat of Hitler...
...At the moment, she is particularly vexed by a proposal for a binding Charter of Human Rights...
...It is not easy to discern the attitude of the British public toward European integration...
...No wonder the Tories and the far Right are wriggling uncomfortably as the European Community moves from strength to strength...
...Although Papandreou admits that the charter might impede industrial and commercial competition in some places, she argues that "competitiveness is not an end in itself no matter what the cost to the workers—but a means to achieve higher living standards...
...Various far-reaching measures governing the new market's operations have already gone into effect, and additional legislation has been proposed to complete the transformation...
...The momentum to interlock them decisively, moreover, is proving irresistible and is fraught with fundamental political implications...
...In just two years trade barriers will dissolve and the 12 member nations will become a single market of 320 million people...
...standardize laws against sex discrimination as well as those regulating health and safety in the workplace...
...He has called on the EC commissioners to take steps to abolish exchange controls, cut agricultural subsidies, and crack down on fraud in subsidy distribution...
...define employees' rights to information and to participation in the management of their work...
...Officials in Greece and Italy, for instance, are far better at protesting their belief in the need for European integration than at getting their parliaments and bureaucracies to implement EC legislation...
...François Mitterrand, the Socialist President of France, may turn out to be Thatcher's surprise ally at Strasbourg...
...No one here is especially upset that the digging of the tunnel to France beneath the English Channel seems to have run into financial problems...
...The one British member of the EC Commission in Brussels, former Thatcher Cabinet minister Sir Leon Brittan, has warned that the legislation could have unexpectedly disagreeable consequences...
...A government spokesman has called it "unacceptable" in its present form...
...A big German chemicals company recently found that Community officials had the authority to raid their offices to check on reported cartel practices...
...Ironically, for all its complaints about the heavy burden of European bureaucracy, Britain has been considerably more conscientious than most other member states about converting EC measures into national law...
...require that vocational training be available to everyone between the ages of 16 and 18...
...The Conservatives did not work so diligently to "free people from Socialism" in Britain, she has declared, onlyto see it "creep in through the back door" from EC headquarters in Brussels...
...but also halt Britain's plunge into the quagmire of a unified Europe...
...The rising tide of criticism was sparked by the government's attempt to restructure the National Health Service and by the privatization of public utilities...
...But rather than a demonstration of support for a fuller EC commitment, the election results could easily have been simply a symptom of the virulent antiThatcher mood sweeping the country...
...Despite her failing popularity, the Prime Minister does seem to reflect the public's traditional sense of proud insularity...
...To draw her into a more cooperative frame of mind and avoid a replay of the open discord of previous summits, Mitterrand may tone down the campaign for adoption of the social charter...
...Outand-out chauvinism is unfashionable at present, however, except on the far Right fringe...
...But as 1992 nears, more and more measures require merely a majority vote to become Community law...
...She is horrified by the idea of the pound sterling being forced to make way for some mongrel EC unit of value, and of the venerable Bank of England bowing to the whims of various Eurocrats...
...In fact, the recent resignation of Chancellor of theExchequer Nigel Lawson was partly triggered by differences with the Prime Minister on that very subject...
...Newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major, while Foreign Secretary, conceded that there should be a social dimension to plans for Europe's future but insisted, "There is nothing social about a dimension which prices people out of jobs.' The Community's Social Affairs Commissioner, Vasso Papandreou of Greece (no relation to former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou), sees the issue differently...
...from the government of whichever EC country they happened to be living in...
...guarantee the right to strike...
...REVERBERATIONS IN LONDON Thatcher at Odds with Europe BY NORMAN GELB London Like a fetus in the final stages of gestation, the European Community (EC) is rapidly assuming the form its champions have long hoped a united Europe would have...
...Perhaps by the time December rolls around Thatcher will have becomemore flexible—particularly if the economy continues to falter...
...It does not take much perspicacity to foresee trouble at the December conclave of EC leaders that will be held in Strasbourg...
...It would establish a Community-wide minimum wage and maximum working hours structure...
...But the charter idea is anathema to the Conservatives...
...The punishing impact of high interest rates on mortgage holders and businesses has further inflamed the discontent...
...The document, said to describe "the European concept of society and the place of labor in that society," goes well beyond the purely economic goals integration was originally designed to achieve...
...In last June's European Parliament elections, the Conservatives were badly trounced by the Labor Party, which has jettisoned its once strong opposition to Common Market membership...
...As a result, Brussels' legislative and administrative power has steadily been taking on greater credibility...
...At the Strasbourg meeting, therefore, she is likely to do her best to block approval of the Charter of Human Rights...
...Member nations can no longer blithely ignore EC environmental measures, for example...
...The last is a matter of no small importance, since it is expected that increasing numbers of Europeans will take advantage of being permitted to reside anywhere in the Community they wish...
...Sheadds, "Wewant to build a Europe better in all respects, not just abetter Europe for companies...
...Britain is the only member nation that has raised public objections to the proposed charter...
...Some of its elements, he said—citing in particular the setting of minimum wages and maximum working hours—could hurt poorer member nations like Greece and Spain that at present depend on their comparatively low labor costs to attract much-needed industrial investment...
...Thatcher fears that the stronger British involvement with the European Monetary System that Lawson favored could lead to an end to separate national currencies and independent fiscal control...
...He will be chairing the summit, and in the past he and other senior European figures have been riled by what they felt were the British Prime Minister's shrill harangues and obstructive tactics...
...That approach, Thatcher believes, is precisely what undermines economic strength and leads to the sort of national malaise Britain experienced before the Tories ousted Labor from power in 1979...
Vol. 72 • October 1989 • No. 16
