EUROPE: Toward the Summit of Truth

• Share

"At the Copenhagen summit," said a top-ranking American diplomat last week, "Europe will make its declaration of independence." That prediction is potentially true, possibly exaggerated. A Liberty Bell will not be rung in Copenhagen, but the statement of principles that is expected to come out of an extraordinary meeting of Western Europe's heads of government this week may one day be considered as symbolically important to Europeans as the Declaration of Independence is to Americans. A generation after the end of World War II, Western Europe seems determined to begin charting its own course—independent of the U.S.

Europeans have often been vexed before by their dependence on the U.S., but never quite so annoyed as to agree on common policies. A combination of events—the Middle East war, the oil shortage, detente and what Europeans consider American arrogance—may, however, be the catalyst that brings unity. "We have lost a decade in European unity," says an aide to French President Georges Pompidou. "But because of the Middle East war we are moving once again. Europe has always advanced only in crises and never in calm. Copenhagen will be the summit of truth to see whether or not there is the political will for Europe to go forward."

The Copenhagen summit was set up within 24 hours after Pompidou proposed it last month. To underscore its urgency, the day-and-a-half meeting has been stripped of the usual bureaucratic trappings, so that the discussion can proceed, as French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert phrases it, "without constraints, without procedure and with an open heart." The nine heads of government will meet alone in a Copenhagen exposition hall, with only their translators. To achieve intimacy, as well as to preserve secrecy, even their dinners will be small affairs; the heads of government will dine in one room while the Foreign Ministers eat in another. There will be no formal agenda—for this will be what the French call an informal, "fireside" summit—merely a list of topics. Among them:

THE MIDDLE EAST AND OIL. Far more hurt by the Arab oil cutback than the U.S., the Europeans are outraged that no European country has been invited to the Geneva peace conference. The British and the French are particularly frustrated. Britain once considered the Middle East almost its own; France, since Charles de Gaulle, has been consistently pro-Arab. Both countries nonetheless find themselves now suffering from the oil shortages.

In a spirit of near-desperation, Jobert, who recently complained that the superpowers had treated Europe like a "nonperson" in the Middle East negotiations, last month suggested a conference between the Arabs and the Europeans, without American or Russian participation. The Arabs, however, have not yet responded.