Resigned to Reality

"We need boldness, more boldness and always boldness." So said West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in Bonn last week as he toasted his distinguished French guest. By invoking the words of French Revolutionary Leader Georges Jacques Danton, Brandt hoped to nudge Georges Pompidou toward a breakthrough in the stalemated process of creating a larger and more unified European Economic Community. The French President was hesitant. "I am tempted to remain faithful to my fellow countryman, even though he came to a bad end," he replied, alluding to the fact that Danton was guillotined by rival revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror in 1794. But, added Pompidou, "we need not only boldness but also a sense of reality. One does not work without the other."

On that cautious note began two days of consultation between Western Europe's most influential leaders. The central issue of the talks was whether --and on what grounds--Pompidou would agree to the first summit meeting of the expanded Common Market, which is tentatively scheduled for late October in Paris. The West Germans and the other members urgently want the summit so that their leaders can chart a joint course on many of the key issues facing the EEC, which will be enlarged from six nations to ten in January. Among those questions are future steps toward closer economic union, and such political matters as the strengthening of the community's supranational agencies and Europe's relations with the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Pompidou remained adamant that Paris would permit the summit to take place only if it concentrated on questions of monetary and economic union. "We must first be united on the monetary issue," he told Brandt. After the Common Market has created a common currency zone, Pompidou implied, he might then be willing to consider the prospect of granting larger powers to the European Parliament and taking steps toward increased political cohesion within the ten. Thus even if the summit does take place on schedule, its agenda will exclude the wider economic and political issues that Brandt and the other leaders seek to discuss.

Actually, there was a good reason why Pompidou would not budge from his position on the summit, and why Brandt could not change the French President's mind. Both men were forced to caution and inaction by political problems at home. Even as he talked with Brandt, Pompidou had made up his mind to sack Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas, replacing him with Old Gaullist Pierre Messmer. Brandt, in turn, had in his pocket an angry five-page letter of resignation from the man who until recently had been the star of his Cabinet, Karl Schiller, the super-Minister who held both the Finance and Economics portfolios.

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