BY MARTÍN KOPPEL AND MARCELLA FITZGERALD
PARIS - The French government hailed the results of a European Union summit, held in Dublin December 12-14, as progress toward the establishment of a single European currency.

"I'm telling you it's going to work!" exclaimed President Jacques Chirac of France at the end of the gathering of 15 heads of capitalist governments. "Anyone who still doubts that the euro will see the light of day understands nothing about the signs of the times," asserted German chancellor Helmut Kohl.

As if to dispel such doubts, pictures of the newly designed euro, the projected European currency, were splashed on front pages of daily newspapers across Europe.

"Yet behind the smiles, the future looks uncertain," remarked an article in the December 16 Financial Times of London. The paper noted that European capitalist governments, riven with differences, deferred the biggest decisions until a June summit in Amsterdam.

The heads of state declared Jan. 1, 1999, as the date for the beginning of the European Monetary Union (EMU), which would include those governments fulfilling a range of requirements.

On the insistence of Chirac, whose government has been dogged by a new wave of working-class protests, EU leaders renamed the agreement the "stability and growth pact." They also adopted a "Declaration on Jobs," promising that current belt-tightening measures would be followed by growth and employment, to sell the deal to working people hit by high joblessness and government attacks on social entitlements.

As the Financial Times put it, "The summit communique sent a message to voters who have protested in the streets of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain against austerity measures aimed at meeting the criteria for EMU."

The EU powers agreed on a joint "anticrime" program, a theme Chirac pushed as one of the ways to persuade middle- class layers and others that monetary union will bring palpable "stability." The summit declaration proposed expanding the powers of the EU-wide police force, Europol, supposedly to target organized crime, drug trafficking, and "terrorism." At a press conference Kohl suggested a European "FBI."

The summit, however, referred all the major disputed issues to the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), an ongoing commission of lower-level representatives of EU members that for nine months has been working on a revision of the 1993 Maastricht treaty. The new accord is supposed to be concluded at the June 1997 EU summit in Amsterdam.

One of the sharpest of these conflicts is between the French and German ruling classes over control of a projected European Central Bank. Bonn, which as the economically strongest capitalist power in Europe is likely to dominate the bank, insists the new financial institution should be "independent" from control by an international political body.

Conflict between Bonn, Paris
French capitalists, on the other hand, are determined not to be cut out of decisions on setting the central bank's exchange rates and other matters. Paris is demanding a "stability council" as a political counterweight to the European Central Bank.

At the Dublin summit, German finance minister Theo Waigel demanded penalties against governments running a budget deficit higher than 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A heated debate ensued with Jean Arthuis, his counterpart in Paris, which has faced substantial labor resistance against austerity measures imposed in the name of cutting the national deficit. The summit adopted a compromise whereby certain governments could be exempted from sanctions if they faced a certain level of recession conditions.

The government leaders also deferred an amendment to the EU constitution to allow decision on a range of issues by majority vote instead of unanimity. The British government objects to any move to majority EU voting on immigration or foreign policy, which could leave the British rulers subject to decisions they did not agree with - such as a ruling on their dispute with the Spanish government over Gibraltar, a British colonial enclave. London opposes proposals for common policy on visa and asylum regulations and a common external European border.

Paris too, in the name of national sovereignty, has balked at some of these proposals. As the shrillness between rival powers rose, a senior German official likened Chirac to an "eel," according to the Financial Times, for not being up front with its stance on certain issues.

Only one paragraph of the summit communique even mentioned enlarging the EU to include countries in Central and Eastern Europe, another contentious issue.

The Tory government in London, hamstrung by internal debates over joining a single currency, was sidelined at the summit. British chancellor Kenneth Clarke had to gatecrash at least one summit sub-meeting of finance ministers to which he had not been invited.

British Labour Party chief Anthony Blair also attended the summit, since elections will be held in the United Kingdom before June and no one is sure whether Major or Blair will be there to represent British capitalism. Blair made clear, however, that only the messenger would change, not the message. A Labour government will be "a rampart against Franco-German domination," he declared, according to the French Communist Party daily L'Humanité.

Line up of political forces in France
In France, Socialist Party (SP) leader Lionel Jospin backed Chirac's position, adding a social facade to the defense of French imperial interests. Speaking at the December 14-15 national convention of the party here, Jospin said the SP was "committed to the Maastricht treaty" signed by former president and SP leader Francois Mitterand, but not by "criteria added on to the treaty" for entry into a single currency. He said he did not support devaluation of the franc, and called for parity between the euro and the U.S. dollar.

Jospin called for supporting the EMU with the addition of a "European social contract." He called for creating jobs by shortening the workweek to 35 hours without loss of pay and generating 700,000 new jobs for youth, financed by eliminating social security tax exemptions for employers. The SP has been gaining popular support, profiting from the unpopularity of the Gaullist government presided by Chirac. French governmental elections are due in 1998.

Likewise, the French Communist Party (CP) has taken a stance in favor of defending "France" and "Europe" against German and U.S. domination. "Germany imposed the essence of its program" at the Dublin summit, L'Humanité complained in a December 16 editorial. It called for building "a new Europe that draws strength from its history, its economic and industrial power" and that "preserves the national sovereignty" of France and other nations.

In an interview in the same issue, CP leader Robert Hue was asked about a single European currency. "We need a national currency. That's what gives a country its strength and independence," he stated. "We will end up with a euro that is weak with respect to the dollar." Indicating that the CP did not call for opposing the European Monetary Union because "the Maastricht treaty has been voted on," Hue proposed a referendum on the issue. "Let's consult the French," he said.

For its part, the National Front, an incipient fascist party that has gained strength with the sharpening class polarization in France over the past year, has also taken a critical stance toward the EMU. At a conference held here December 14-15, National Front chief Jean-Marie Le Pen opposed the establishment of a single currency and denounced "world free trade-ism," which he said was aimed at "the disappearance of the French nation."

Posing as a champion of working people, Le Pen advocated raising the minimum wage and preserving social security and retirement pensions. He called for "a third road" that would be "neither socialism nor capitalism."  
 
 
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