The Mansholt Jolt

Europeans last week were treated to the refreshing spectacle of a top Eurocrat who said precisely what he thought--in plain language. He is Sicco Leendert Mansholt, 63, a burly 6-ft. 2-in., 191-lb. Dutch farmer, socialist politician and diplomat who took over last month as the fourth president of the Common Market Commission. To begin what promises to be a lively term as "Europe's Prime Minister," he faced a press conference and, after demanding a glass of champagne, delivered himself of a few straightforward opinions.

ON GROWTH: "Gross national product in all our member states, and also in the U.S. and Japan, has been thought of as something sacred. But G.N.P. is diabolical. We must think, instead, of our people's happiness."

ON POLLUTION: "If Europe can reach production without pollution, then we must do it. If others do not choose slower expansion in order to preserve the quality of life, then there will be conflict. I don't want Europe to be protectionist, but I think Europe must protect itself--not against others but to force others to go in similar directions."

ON BRITAIN'S LABOR PARTY, which opposes entry into the EEC: "As a socialist, I am ashamed to see my [British] friends developing along these lines. Socialism is fundamentally international. I'm convinced the majority of British socialists will say in years to come, 'What damned stupid things we did in '71 and'72!'"

ON SWEDEN AND SWITZERLAND: "We are about to conclude an agreement with Sweden that ought to satisfy them economically. After some time--I give them four years--this situation [of political isolation] will no longer satisfy the Swedes. It's another matter for Switzerland, because we could never give Switzerland the financial position she enjoys at the moment. It doesn't interest me very much. They must find their own way."

ON SPAIN: "I should be happy to welcome Spain into our community once they have a responsive system. It would give them some democratic education."

ON EEC REFORM: "If a question has been well prepared, we don't need to debate it for 110 hours. That we do so on decisions taken annually shows that our community is sick. With their limited briefs, ministers must telephone their heads of government three times a night. But do they really want to be wakened to be asked about pork prices?"

A member of the commission during its entire 14 years, Mansholt grew up among the dour farmer folk of the northern Dutch province of Groningen, and during World War II became a central figure in the Resistance. Tapped after the war to become Minister of Agriculture, he tired of domestic politics in the 1950s, and in 1958 was sent to Brussels as The Netherlands' member of the European Commission. There he refined "the Mansholt Plan" to phase out Europe's tiny farms and replace them with larger, more efficient units; a modified version of his proposal was passed the day after he took over as president. Within the staid EEC bureaucracy, he also developed a well-founded reputation for bumptious indiscretion. As a zealous supranationalist who advocated closer European union, he fought a number of ideological battles with France's Gaullist representatives in the early '60s. For years it had been assumed that the hostility of the French had cost Mansholt whatever chances he had of becoming president.

This time, though, he had the backing of the French, who may well have seen his election as one way of getting the commission's key agriculture portfolio for themselves. At any rate, Mansholt is certain to bring new life to meetings of the commissioners, who are appointed by their respective governments and are given more to haggling over detail than defining any vision of what the future political shape of Europe should be. Mansholt's predecessors --with the exception of Germany's Walter Hallstein, who served from 1958 to 1967--have set a pattern of weak and even meek presidents. That era is clearly over.

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