Common Market: EEC Does It

Nearly 80 nations have deemed the European Economic Community important enough to appoint ambassadors to represent them at the EEC in Brussels, and Common Market President Walter Hallstein has long been accustomed to greeting the emissaries in style. He arranged for a red carpet all the way to the curb of 23 Avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée when a new ambassador presented his credentials; the newcomer was then whisked by private elevator to Hallstein's eighth-floor suite, and, after a striped-pants ceremony, Hallstein would break out champagne. It was just what any head of state would do, but it made the Biggest Head of State among the Common Market members, Charles de Gaulle, turn sovereign purple with rage.

What bothered the French was their suspicion that Hallstein was consciously using protocol to enhance the supranational goals of the dedicated Eurocrats. So a year ago France began blocking all new requests for accreditation unless the striped pants came off and the champagne corks stayed on, scornfully suggested that credentials be mailed to Hallstein. Hallstein in turn refused to go into mail-order diplomacy, and the line of waiting unaccredited diplomats grew until it reached 17. Finally, last week, both sides gave in to a compromise that satisfied De Gaulle's main point. Representatives of South Africa and South Korea in mufti slipped quietly into Hallstein's office, were received by the EEC president in a grey business suit, departed without so much as a cup of coffee.