No Ultimatum To Five

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 17

No Ultimatum To Five

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LUXEMBURG, Jan. 18. Foreign Ministers of the Common Market countries will resume their special meeting today to consider France’s hard, but negotiable, conditions for her return to the conference table. The French Foreign Minister, Mr Maurice Couve de Murville, presented the demands last night at the meeting called to solve the six-month-old crisis in the Community.

But he emphasised that the conditions were negotiable and should not be taken as an ultimatum.

France has been boycotting the Common Market since last July, when the Six failed to agree on new farm financing measures, linked to proposals for greater supranational powers for the Community’s Ex-

ecutive Commission and the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Courteous and Calm

Ministers and other delegates said after yesterday’s meeting that it was held in a courteous and calm atmosphere, but there was no sign yet of a bridging of the gap between France and her five partners. It would be very difficult to solve the problems at issue, but the French were convinced that a solution could be found, conference officials said.

The Rome Treaty which established the Community, provides for majority voting in the council from January 1, 1966.

On this point, Mr Couve de Murville said he was not asking for a revision of the treaty, but for a political agreement covering its application, the officials said. This agreement should specify that any member state would continue to have the right of veto when its vital interests were concerned. The French Minister did not mention the replacement of any commission members. But delegates understood that France would bring this up when the new single commission was created. France has been highly critical of several Commission members, particularly the president, Professor Walter Hallstein, of West Germany.