Agreeing to Disagree

For three days and nights, delegates from the six Common Market nations haggled in Luxembourg over the proposals laid down by France as its terms for re-entry into EEC talks. Finally, the Six approved a compromise plan that formalized an agreement to disagree. On the crucial question of whether France could retain its veto over "major" EEC decisions, the plan noted only that "a difference of opinion exists"--implying that the Five would lean over backwards to avoid getting involved in anything all that important. It was nothing like the virtual rewrite of the veto provision in the Treaty of Rome once threatened by Charles de Gaulle. Nevertheless, the other Five noted with relief that France's Foreign Minister Couve de Murville seemed willing to rejoin them in regular attendance at all Council meetings, starting in February.

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