Greek Threat

By Robert T. Zintl

A Community plan is blocked

The normally tranquil streets of Dublin bristled with blue-coated Irish policemen as the leaders of the ten European Community nations gathered for a two-day summit last week. Irish officials were holding their breath: less than two months after an Irish Republican Army bomb almost claimed the life of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, an I.R.A. splinter group had vowed to try again. Instead, a different kind of assault came from an unexpected source. As the meeting drew to a close, Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou threatened to torpedo its major goal: a painstakingly constructed agreement on the terms under which Spain and Portugal would be able to join the Community. Papandreou announced that unless the Community provided a six-year, $3.75 billion program to assist poor farmers in Mediterranean countries, he would veto any entry plan.

The Greek threat will delay final agreement on membership for Spain and Portugal at least until March. That will leave just nine months for the parliaments of all twelve nations to ratify the necessary treaties before the entry target date of January 1986. The timing is particularly important for Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, who has promised his countrymen a referendum on Spain's continued membership in NATO by February 1986. Gonzalez has hinted that without E.C. membership he may not get the popular support he needs for NATO. Says a senior Spanish diplomat: "You cannot ask us to participate in the defense of the values of the West and not grant us the benefits." In private, West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher has put it more bluntly: "Why should the Spanish send their soldiers to help defend us when we won't even buy their tomatoes?"

Papandreou campaigned against Greek participation in NATO and the E.G. when he came to power in 1981, and he has been difficult ever since. Community decisions must be unanimous, and Papandreou has used the veto threat while demanding special benefits for Greece. He borrowed the tactic from Thatcher, who stalled the Community for five years while she insisted that Britain deserved a rebate on its Community budget contributions. In Dublin, Papandreou dragged the summit for five hours beyond its scheduled closing to argue that Greek, French and Italian farmers will need massive financial aid to help them adjust to the inevitable flood of Spanish and Portuguese produce.

Papandreou based his demands for $3.75 billion on a proposal made earlier this year by the European Commission, the Community's Brussels-based executive body, to set up a six-year program to subsidize poor farmers in Mediterranean countries. But with the E.C. budget already strained, the Community leaders had planned to set aside only $37 million in aid to poor farmers next year. Papandreou resisted all efforts to lower his sights, including a $60 million counteroffer from West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The Greek Prime Minister agreed to go along with the Community in negotiating the agreements with Spain, but reserved his right to veto the entry of the applicants. The demands, which were labeled "Utopian" by Kohl, seemed to leave most of the other leaders more annoyed than concerned. The reason: Greece already receives $750 million a year more from the E.C. than it pays in. If Spanish membership is blocked, West Germany will refuse to raise its revenue contributions to the Community, and there will be no money at all for Mediterranean support programs. Declared Kohl: "Anyone who blocks the entry of Spain and Portugal must bear a heavy responsibility." -By Robert T. Zintl. Reported by Bonnie Angela and Lawrence Malkin/ Dublin

With reporting by Bonnie Angela, Lawrence Malkin/ Dublin