Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 6, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january Page 7 issues the new Europe new Europe May finally be arriving by William Pfaff special to the free press Paris an Economy called Europe is supposed to exist by the Start of a Politi Cal entity called possessing defence and Security is supposed to be under yet neither of these would be imaginable if another Europe did not already with cultural and this Europe has been neglected in the Effort to construct the european economic and political begun by Jean Monnet in the that lapse has now been addressed by an individual acting on his own in what a North american might think a very North american Way of going about the one reason for this europeans initiative is that he possesses a personal identity As complicated As that of most North beef Frederic Delouche has a norwegian Mother and a French he was educated at Catholic Ampleforth and at Cambridge in in at school in England he was a on vacation in France he found himself one of those faintly ridiculous to the a Rosbin which is to a roast or both English and French looked upon his norwegian Side As of the Savage Vikings pillaging civilized whom sensible Europe ans prayed god to keep away from Delouche became very tired of being even jocular As a historic enemy in the very countries he considered he married after to an English girl brought up in Ugan he became a banker and worked in latin the United states and he became interested in the ottoman and he and his wife went to Leba non to learn just a european in Europe he became increasingly frustrated by the Persis tence of nationalist he really could not describe himself As anything other than a but nobody else seemed to share that state of being norwegian or French or English was not each nationality was and false to the other parts of he had also seen Europe from the Distant perspectives of Buenos new Beirut and so he set out to make europeans conscious of themselves As Europe he decided that a new history of Europe should be which would treat it As a single civilization derived from a common his tory and shared cultural experiences from greek Art and politics roman Empire christianity christianity division in and after the reformation revolution in the 18th Century nationalism in the 19th Industrial Revo Lution the aesthetic experiences of romanticism and he approached several professional historians and convinced them that his project was Worth he convinced publishers in eight countries that it could be he gave and raised for the a senior French Jean Baptiste undertook the Karl Dietrich Erdmann in Sergio Romano in Juan Antonio Sanchez Garcia Sauco in and Keith Robbins and Richard Mayne in Britain joined the Effort to make the work one which would surmount National prejudices and the volume which resulted has just come to considerable critical it is called Europe a history of its Peoples in the British published by Vik ing simultaneous editions have come out in France and the nether a school textbook version is in and a television series is being the purpose of the to make europeans see themselves As specific National members of a sin Gle strikes a contrast ing note to the critical reexamination of american cultural Unity now under Way in not so diverse the United states has no such primordial diversity As Europe it is or was until very cultural product of a mainly protestant immigration from the British in the Early 19th Cen germans and Irish catholics and then Scandin jewish and asian but All accepted the cultural predominance and Essen tial politic social norms of the original the american exception to this was the Black african brought to slavery and excluded from Power until the it nonetheless made a wholly disproportionate contribution to the develop ment of a specifically and to an american musical and popular culture that swept the world indeed to the creation of the 20th Century Ameri can sensibility that Whites now in the Blacks too conformed to the White majority if often subversively or Delors his european economic area May finally come into As in the contemporary Black ghettos amplification of mainstream americas material atomic Vio Lence and potentiality for in Europe there never was a single Norm to which others were expected to National Cul Tures dominated because until very recently europeans Felt no doubt that Europe was the Centre of the world hence that their own nation Al differences expressed Universal the two world wars and the cold War changed that europeans have been forced to recognize what they have in common to unite at the same time that americans and canadians Are being confronted with what divides this emergence of a sense of common european identification would seem fundamental to the achievement of a True what is striking is that so significant a reinterpretation of Europe experience As presented in the de volume should have come from an individuals private experience and it would seem evidence that after is Europe Little seven seek links to common Market 1l to which the main beneficiaries will major change in National a Titu by Dick Leonard special to the free press Stockholm now looks As though the projected euro Pean economic com prising the european Community and the seven member states of the european free Trade association nor Switzerland and Liechtenstein will in fact come into Force at the beginning of yet its purpose will have changed significantly since dec commission president Jacques Delors first pro posed an sea Early in he envisaged it As an alternative to full membership by the Efta states it now seems that More than half the Efta members see it Only As a staging Post to membership a few years the austrians applied for membership already in 1989 on Decem Ber 12 the swedish parliament overwhelmingly endorsed a propos Al to apply for membership during the course of the swedish government is hoping to persuade Norway and Finland to join it in a joint nordic this is unlikely to but both of Sweden neighbors May Well take the plunge some time within the next couple of a Swiss which would of course have to surmount the severe obstacle of a referendum by Switzerland highly conservative is also on the Only the obsessed by the need to keep exclusive control of their own fishing seem cer Tain to stand at least for the foreseeable free Market because they now see the sea which would create a free Market comprising 350 million people As Only a temporary the Efta states have substantially backed Down in their negotiating at the Elefta Ministeri Al meeting on december they accepted stiff conditions which they had been resisting until quite re in the Efta coun tries withdrew All their previous de mands for permanent exceptions from Many of the dec rules which they would be required to accept when the sea is Stab they tabled a much Shorter list of provisions from which Only temporary derogation will be in the Efta states accepted from the outset that they must comply with the four free Doms Freedom of movement for labor and services which the dec members enshrined for themselves in the treaty of detailed negotiations resume this there Are six main issues due to be d health and environmental Stan Dards these tend to be higher in the Efta countries than in the and the Efta states Are deter mined that any harmonisation should take the form of levelling up rather than levelling the dec All of which now have far stronger environmental lobbies than in the Are not Likely to resist this d the question of opening up land and direct investment to foreign ownership this Issue brought Down the Centre right norwegian government in As the Farmer dominated Centre party was not prepared to scrap the norwegian Laws restricting foreign of the new minority labor government of Gro Harlem Brundt land has agreed to make the Neces sary changes in the and will be backed by the conservative now in this is also a contentious Point in but it looks As though All the Efta states will agree to bring their Laws into line with those of the delay possible d the movement of persons this is particularly sensitive for Swit Zerland and both of which already have a High proportion of foreign a Likely solution is that the requirement for free Access will be delayed for a number of years for these two d economic How the economic Levels of the More southerly members of the Community can be brought up to those of their More northerly part ners the Efta All of which have a High Standard of Are Likely to agree to make Finan Cial contributions to a fund from which the main beneficiaries will be Southern Spain and and d fisheries the dec demand that its boats should have Access to Efta Waters is being strongly resisted by Iceland to a lesser unless the dec moderates its demands it could Lead to Iceland dropping out of the d future decision making in the sea the trickiest with the dec offering consultation and the Efta states de manding the dec is now proposing More extensive consultation than and it looks As though the Efta countries will have to make do with what is now on the negotiations need to be completed by june to allow sufficient time for the agreement to be Rati fied by each of the 19 National parliaments 12 in the seven in the the swedish member ship application will follow in just ahead of the swedish general in which All the main parties will Back the the swedish decision reflects a major change in National Twenty years ago there was a tonal consensus that membership would be incompatible with the country traditional policy of Neu the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe has led to a drastic and the fact that each of the 16 largest swedish companies More business abroad than in swe have led the country to con clude that it cannot afford to be excluded from future developments within the european not unanimous similar conclusions Are being drawn in both Finland and though the necessary political unanimity has not yet been yet the swedish example and the evident demand in Hun Gary and Czechoslovakia to climb aboard the dec makes it All but inevitable that finns and norwegians too will soon decide that their destiny lies within the com Dick Leonard is european Community correspondent of the observer of almost against their Alberta pcs get Green Elma the min lip my first get Bill the other cents in a me to Start 1991 with a satisfying round of that great National but perversity turns me in the other direction this being part of the Job description for lets see if there is something to in the vast tory wasteland we Call there although not much of it is the Alberta provincial have one very Bright spot on their growing concern for the this cause us to sing Hosannah just if not of the Getty Don braid in Alberta governments environmental achievements have been forced on they have been tied Down and painted Green against their the record is especially where pulp Mills Are the changes in the past two years amount to a revolution in environmental consider d opposition to the huge Albert Pacific project at Athabasca forced a Complete change in the company this will result in a new Standard for bleached graft Mills in whether such Mills should exist at All is another but even environmentalists will Alpaca is no longer a threatening d All other Mills in Alberta will be forced to meet the Alpaca some Are spending Many millions to clean up their emissions into Alberta d the governments of Alberta and the Northwest territories will spend million to study the peace and Athabasca Junior woodchucks d one of the Root causes of the Alpaca mess the Commerce first spirit of Albertas forestry department has been discredited for All never again will the Junior woodchucks try to sell a Forest without due concern for the d in its panic at the hostile reaction to the government created the new natural resources conservation this will Lead to greater Public scrutiny and technical analysis of resource the lesson taught to the japanese owners of Mitsubishi and is causing other companies to study their projects much More from now scientific studies will be More rigorous and Public consultation More albertan have sent out a powerful message that they wont be pushed d the new environmental Protection and enhancement when it comes promises to be a Tough Law that finally brings the tories into closer touch with the Public All of this would have seemed absolutely even Only two years we Arent very far from the Days when Ken Kowalski compared environmentalists to pot smoking Only a decade a minister named Jack Cookson said he liked acid rain because its Good for Alberta kicking and screaming the Alberta tories had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new but at least Treyve which is More than we can say for the Federal gang who rammed the get through a solid Wall of Public Don braid is a Calgary Herald ;