Word: pompidou
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...Continent is no where on the horizon. Europe today is governed by political technicians who devote most of their energies to tinkering with domestic affairs to remain in power-and do even that badly. Every major leader is beset by crises. Some, like France's Georges Pompidou and West Germany's Willy Brandt, seem tired and bored; others, like Britain's Edward Heath, are fighting for their political lives. All of them are, essentially, afraid to make decisions that would promote the cause of Europe for fear that they might cause momentary domestic complications. As a result...
...refreshing informality, while European fans beknighted him the "Meistersinger Minister." Who knows? If Scheel could get together with West Europe's other leaders, even the factions in the Common Market might stay in tune. Scheel could sing, Edward Heath could pound the piano, and Georges Pompidou might even learn to tootle an obbligato on the French horn...
Jobert is basically shy, without political ambition, and obviously ill at ease in public gatherings. He operates best behind the scenes as a quiet, efficient technocrat. Unlike Kissinger, Jobert never makes a decision without clearing it first with his chief of state, President Georges Pompidou. A graduate of France's prestigious Ecole Nationale d'Administration, Jobert was a gifted civil servant who joined forces with Pompidou ten years ago as one of his top aides. Short and slight, he has a mordant wit, and his intellectual powers command the respect of Cabinet colleagues...
Jobert's interpretation of this accord-that the U.S. was committed to give first priority to consultation with Moscow in any crisis-triggered his (and Pompidou's) decision to launch a public discussion of a common European defense outside the framework of NATO. "NATO is not European. It is European and American and Canadian-in short, Atlantic." Instead, Jobert wants European defense organized within the Western European Union, an organization he describes as "more flexible and exclusively European...
...Copenhagen summit was set up within 24 hours after Pompidou proposed it last month. To underscore its urgency, the day-and-a-half meeting has been stripped of the usual bureaucratic trappings, so that the discussion can proceed, as French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert phrases it, "without constraints, without procedure and with an open heart." The nine heads of government will meet alone in a Copenhagen exposition hall, with only their translators. To achieve intimacy, as well as to preserve secrecy, even their dinners will be small affairs; the heads of government will dine in one room while the Foreign...