France: Premiere at the Elysee

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On the issue of Britain's entry into the European Economic Community, Pompidou assured his audience that France did not consider the Common Market a "convent" requiring "a series of vows to be pronounced." At the same time, the "European notion" must have a firm basis, and enlargement of the EEC involves real difficulties, some of which "have been hidden behind what has been called the French veto," Pompidou said. At present, the EEC was nothing more than "a customs union on the one hand and, on the other, an agricultural community quite difficult to operate." The needs for more integrated farm trade, plus progress in science, industrial energy, transportation and the harmonization of business law should all have priority over expanding the community's size, Pompidou said. However, he was prepared to discuss new negotiations with the British at a Common Market summit meeting this fall.

Front-Page Surprise. As for relations between the U.S. and France, they reached a "turning point" with President Nixon's visit to De Gaulle last winter, said Pompidou. Present U.S. policy in Viet Nam "is viewed here with the greatest sympathy." He made no startling announcements regarding France's financial and economic problems, though he reiterated an oft-stated campaign theme that their solution depended on stimulating foreign trade. There was, in fact, little startling news anywhere in the conference, in sharp contrast to De Gaulle's habit of almost invariably springing a front-page surprise. But Pompidou convinced both the press and his nationwide TV audience that his government was pretty much what he had promised: competent and responsive to demands for gradual change.