Toward Ten

Several members of the Norwegian Parliament received scrawled notes threatening death if they voted to join the Common Market; religious extremists railed against the possibility of a Catholic influx from Western Europe into Lutheran Norway. But after four days of sober debate, ending in a solid 113-37 vote of approval, Norway last week formally applied for full membership in the thriving six-nation economic community.

As in the case of Denmark and Ireland, who have also asked to join, the major hitch to Norway's application is the outcome of Britain's complicated negotiations with the Six. If London's bid falls through. Norway would pull out. Otherwise, Oslo will start negotiating for membership terms this summer--and the bargaining should not be difficult. Half of Norway's most important exports (fish, metals, paper) are already bought by Common Market customers. In addition, Norway's highly developed hydroelectric power system would fill a gap in the energy needs of the Six. The hardest bargaining will be over Norway's desire to protect its fishing fleet--foreign fishing boats now must stay twelve nautical miles from Norway's coast--and its inefficient, small-scale, heavily subsidized agriculture.

Norway's application closed the books on prospective candidates for full membership in the economic community--not counting the countries clamoring for associate membership, notably Austria and other neutrals (see below). Within three years or less the Six will be Ten, stretching from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, from the Alps to the Atlantic.

As for British membership, many feel that Britain cannot become a "European" power without sacrificing its Commonwealth relations, a dilemma memorably described by Cartoonist Cummings (see cut). But the founding father of European unity, France's Jean Monnet, last week assured Britain that Market members are eager for it to join. The farsighted Monnet, 73. gazed even beyond the day when continental Europe and Britain will merge, predicted that European unity "will play a vital part in creating conditions leading to real peace between East and West." Said Monnet: "When the partnership of America and a united Europe makes it plain to all that the West may change from within but that others cannot change it by outside pressures, the conditions will exist for a lasting settlement between the Soviet Union and the West. I don't think we shall have to wait long for this change."

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