June 11 1974
The Common Market today gave the go-ahead in Bonn for its dialogue with the Arab states after overcoming American reservations and initial British reticence.
Foreign ministers of the “Nine” also defused the vexed question of consultations between the Community and the US.
But the ministers, on the first day of a two-day session on EEC foreign policy co-ordination, failed to even out differences between Britain and her eight partners on the draft text of a declaration of Atlantic principles due to be adopted by Nato foreign ministers in Ottawa next week.
The Nato text was not discussed during the formal session, but the ministers held a secret meeting this evening to try to narrow differences, informed sources said.
This was unsuccessful.
The main point at issue is a reference in the Nato document to “European Union”.
British Foreign Secretary Mr James Callaghan said this phrase was too closely associated with the EEC’s declared goal of political union by 1980 and as such unacceptable to the new Labour government.
Efforts to find an acceptable alternative failed, but discussions will continue both in the Nato council and among the Nine’s political directors to find a compromise.
An early example of the UK going it alone in Europe, in this instance, to the use of wording that suggested closer union and integration within the EEC.
SDLP Man Calls for Axing of UDR
Mr Hugh Logue, SDLP Assemblyman for Derry, said yesterday that the Ulster Defence Regiment should be disbanded. He claimed that since the loyalist strike, the regiment had become increasingly sectarian in its actions.
Mr Logue is to press his case with the Secretary of State, Mr Merlyn Rees, and yesterday he and two other SDLP members met three Labour MPs in Derry to argue, among other matters, for the axing of the force.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Logue said he had no doubt that had the UDR been asked to move into the power stations or to transport petrol during the loyalist strike they would have mutinied.