Common Market: Cowing the Six

THIS is deplorable," sniffed the Belgian Minister of Agriculture. "Call the police," demanded his German counterpart. "That cow is dribbling on the papers," shouted an aide. "Get it away from the desk!" The cow merely mooed and left a steaming souvenir on the elegant green carpet of the oak-paneled conference room in the European Community's Congress Palace in Brussels.

The six agricultural ministers of the European Common Market were quietly discussing farm policies when some 60 irate Belgian farmers, accompanied by three cows, burst into the room, shouting: "Down with the Common Market! We need money to live!" While the nervous cows mucked up the floor, the farmers presented their demands to EEC Commission Vice President Sicco Mansholt--a 6% increase in the price of dairy products and a tax on imported fats and oils. Mansholt took it all with aplomb. "This is an agricultural ministers' meeting," he said. "These things are to be expected."

While a secretary sprayed the room with a lemon-scented aerosol bomb, police and firemen ejected the intruders. Outside the palace, a Liege farmer, who felt that the ministers had not been sufficiently cowed, lamented: "My only regret is that we didn't bring along a bull."

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