message across to Gorbachev that if he wanted help, then he had to create the right conditions in the Soviet Union. He had to change the structure of the economic system so that the private sector in the West would also be prepared to help. Mr Maude pointed out that there were huge differences of scale between the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It was difficult for the EC to give help to a country of 280 million people but they could make some impact on Eastern European countries. There was no tradition of free enterprise in the Soviet Union; they had moved from feudalism to Marxism. Mr Poos mentioned that a number of Eastern European countries were starting to copy EC law.
Poland for example had passed a number of laws inspired by EC directives.
5.
Mr Maude said that it was important for Germany to be anchored in the West. There were two structures which could perform this role, the EC and NATO, the most important of which was NATO. Germany was fully integrated into the EC and there was no question of her pulling out. But Germany's membership of NATO had been an issue. We needed to think of a way of making the NATO structure stronger. Some movement by the French towards NATO might give the right signal to Germany.
Political Union
6. Mr Poos thought that the sort of integration which Germany was talking about was very different from the sort of integration which other EC countries had in mind. They wanted the President of the Commission to be elected by the European Parliament. Mr Poos commented that the French might share this position but that it was unacceptable to others. Mr Maude said he was not sure that the French were seeking that. Dumas had strong views about the French retaining sovereignty over foreign policy. Giscard and Chirac were both talking in more Gaullist terms about the way Europe should develop. The French were backing down from rapid integration. Mr Poos said that we needed to make sure that the mandate did not open the way for fundamental changes. The EC was a successful organisation as it existed at the moment. We had to keep a careful watch on the Franco-German axis. Mr Maude thought that this was under a certain amount of strain. Previously, France had tended to dominate the axis, but this might now change that. The Americans were also finding that the Germans were not going to be so acquiescent.
7.
Mr Poos thought that the French and Germans had been working from the same paper in Parknasilla. Mr Sheinwald
added that they were reading from alternate paragraphs. Mr Maude agreed and commented that the most significant thing about the Kohl/Mitterrand letter was what it did not say. It had been designed to show a common Franco-German front but had concealed fundamental differences. It was obvious that the
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