Called Bluff

After a meeting with West German Chancellor Willy Brandt three weeks ago, French President Georges Pompidou was asked whether he thought the proposed "Summit of Ten" -- the long-awaited meeting of the six European Economic Community nations, plus the four candidate countries--would actually be held. Replied Pompidou: "It will be like the Olympics. The final will decide."

Last week the final was in fact held in Rome, where Foreign Ministers of the six member nations plus Britain agreed that the summit should proceed as scheduled on Oct. 19-21. It is billed as a meeting to set guidelines for Europe for the next decade, and will have a full agenda including preparations for a European Security Conference, a Common Market policy toward developing countries and community measures against terrorism.

Even so, last week's agreement represented something of a failure of French diplomacy, in that Paris appeared to bend to the will of its partners instead of the other way around. All summer France had threatened to sabotage the meeting unless--among other things--the Common Market agreed to locate a political secretariat in Paris and decide on a joint trade policy toward the rest of the world, specifically the U.S. In effect France's partners had now called Paris' bluff--and won.

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