Europe Stumbling Toward Unity

...ways of doing things, what is supposed to emerge is a European way...

...The practice is said to cost the average British household roughly $2,000 a year in inflated food prices, while much of the Community's annual $40 billion outlay is consumed by rampant fraud...

...Consequently, in Maastricht last December, Prime Minister John Major finally accepted a scheme that allowed the other 11 member states to "opt in" for majority voting on social policy, and left Britain free to join them only on the laws it finds agreeable...

...London firmly opposes proposals that would permit European foreign policy decisions to be made by a majority vote of the member nations...

...The same applies to rules for the health and safety of workers...

...Yet the strong influence it has long wielded in the Brussels bureaucracy is being eroded, and officials in Paris fear that some of the benefits they had come to take for granted may soon be curtailed...

...Much of this will unquestionably be to the good...

...Besides Britain's recalcitrance, the European Community is facing a downturn in the economic expansion that had provided enthusiasm for revolutionary experiments...

...The London Sunday Times has complained, "From lavatories to literature, and encompassing just about every sphere of human activity imaginable, Brussels is bound to have a rule about it...

...They believe the Brussels bureaucrats have been infected by "Euromadness," a preoccupation with issuing decrees and directives that far exceeds the reasonable...

...Indeed, the most devout Euro-fanatics admit the 1993 date agreed to years ago for the creation of a single Western European market was never a firm target...

...A good deal of the legislation—notably on the minimum wage, maximum working hours and women's rights—conflicts with the anti-welfare state philosophy of the British Conservative Party...

...From that moment on, there should be no obstacles to the free movement of people, goods, investments, and services among the member nations of the Community...

...British skeptics, however, contend that their forebodings are justified...

...In a very real sense, of course, that is the object of the EC...

...As things now stand, only a fraction of the almost 300 measures devised by the Community's bureaucracy in Brussels to produce the 320 million-person market have been implemented by all 12 member states...

...Italy, among the most active campaigners for speedy unification, has ironically done the least on this score...

...Europeans on the Continent attribute Britain's disquiet to its traditional insularity and vestiges of xenophobia...

...The Labor Party, at one time more isolationist than the Tories, has lately swung over to the side of EC integration...

...The last barriers to the economic integration of the European Community (EC) are scheduled to be swept away before the stroke of midnight on December 31...

...Having signed the Treaty of Rome that established the Community, the law-abiding British government tends to obey EC directives, albeit sometimes grudgingly...

...Late last year the other EC members reluctantly acquiesced to Germany's demand for recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, thereby accepting the breakup of Yugoslavia...

...Doubts have surfaced in other EC nations, too, but they are not nearly as widespread or persistent...

...It would be interesting to know how much committee time went into the decision that the European condom must be six inches long and two inches in circumference, or what special interests were involved in determining that a cauliflower is a cauliflower only if it sports a certain number of green leaves of a specified size...

...Virtually all responsible figures are convinced that a substantial measure of integration makes economic sense and will ultimately redound to the interests of every nation involved...

...it is also giving a high priority to dealing with the fragmentation of the former Soviet Union and the upheaval in parts of Eastern Europe that have historically fallen within the German sphere of influence...

...Moreover, a truly single European market may not be achievable until the end of the century, if by then...

...Nevertheless, suspicion is rife here that something is profoundly wrong with the integration process, or at least with the way it is being put into practice by the European Commission and its president, Jacques Delors...

...But no one expects that giant step toward the establishment of a United States of Europe to be taken—not yet, anyway, and probably not for several years to come...

...But a Europe far more united and independent than ever before is undoubtedly in the making...

...It was set, they say, merely to stimulate the political action that would ultimately lead to unity...

...Such encroachments have prompted even British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, a supporter of unification, to criticize the Commission for seeking to force itself into the "nooks and crannies of everyday life...

...It insists on retaining its veto partly out of concern about what the unpredictable French or Germans might come up with, and partly because it wishes to maintain whatever it can of the special Anglo-American relationship...

...France has many reasons to be pleased with the advantages of EC membership, not least among them being the enormous subsidies paid to its farmers and the controversial protection its vulnerable electronics industry enjoys...

...They were distressed, too, by the Bundesbank's unilateral decision to raise domestic interest rates, thereby preventing some of the EC nations from reducing capital costs to stimulate their economies...

...That is why the United States government, formerly a strong supporter of European unity, is now considerably less enthusiastic about the reality...

...While it is not intended to supplant national identity, revered by all concerned, the standardization required by Brussels will certainly erode some national distinctions...

...Instead of British, German, French, Italian, Greek, etc...

...And they worry that by intruding into the lives and business practices of everyone through legally enforceable pestering, the Commission will subvert cherished British norms...

...The EC's Common Agriculture Policy, designed to protect farmers by distributing large subsidies and sanctioning the accumulation of expensive mountains of surplus food, has aroused particular ire...

...Germany, the engine that was to power economic integration, is not only burdened with the costs and issues of reunification...

...On the other hand, too many of the decrees emanating from the EC's administrative capital bear the stamp of Eurocrats doing something simply for the sake of doing something...

...In sum, 1993 will not be the wonder year many had suggested it would be...

...Similarly, little grasp of reality is evident in attempts to make schoolboy newspaper delivery rounds illegal on the grounds of child labor protection...

...Britain also has balked at the Community's social and labor laws...

...Nonetheless, Europe continues to grope its way toward some form of unity...

...On several points crucial to total European integration, though, it remains distinctly out of step with its partners...

...French attitudes regarding the Community are undergoing change as well...

...The mounting doubts, dissatisfactions and setbacks in the Community have unquestionably slowed the pace of its development...

...If it comes to power in Britain's forthcoming elections, it will probably reverse the present government's position on Europe...

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

...There has also been talk of banning British double-decker buses because those most stable of vehicles might tip over...

...But as things now stand, Britain is unabashedly the odd man out, its attitude clearly defined by its refusal to agree to a single European currency or to participate in a European central bank...

...They went along for the sake of maintaining unity, but they deeply resented Chancellor Helmut Kohl's uncompromising stance on the issue...

...EC environmental protection regulations, for example, may annoy foot-dragging regional authorities, but the prescriptions are largely unassailable...

...In fact, Germany has embarked on an assertive new approach to foreign affairs that has aroused concern in the Community, especially among the British and French...

...In contrast, Britain, the EC member most reluctant to surrender sovereignty, has been one of the most diligent in enacting the new rules and regulations...