WESTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A002300190001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 9, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

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EC Council Concedes Form but No Substance to
EC Parliament on Budget-Making 1
Speculation About a New Global Foreign
Policy For West Germany. 2
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December 9, 1975
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EC Council Concedes Form but No Substance to EC
Parliament on Budget-Making
The budget committee of the European Parliament
took part in the EC Council of budget ministers for the
first time on December 3. In what amounted to a reuiew
of the EC budget for 1976 on a line by line basis, the
parliamentary committee wanted to go as far as possibly
in restoring the cuts of about $700 million made under
West German impetus earlier this fall. It hoped in
any case to take advantage of new treaty provisions that
came into effect last year which give the parliament
the right to insist on modest increases in certain
categories of expenditure.
The Council did not accept any of tYie committee's
suggestions but, in an effort to undercui: the rationale
for a parliamentary confrontation, propo~;ed the res-
titution of some $100 million for development aid,
scientific research and the community's :social fund.
Yiis apportion-
ment y e ounce of a it~.onal funds 3.n the draft budget
does not affect the parliament's freedom to make its
own modest increases in the budget. Parliament could
delay approving the budget indefinitely an these grounds
when it meets in Strasbourg on December 7.5-19, but it is
more likely to accept the result of last week's meetin
with some small further modification.
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December 9, 1975
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CONFIDENTIAI,
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S~~eculation .About a New Global Foreign Policy For
West Germany
A recent series of visits to "third-world" countries
by West German officials, and a background briefing by
the Foreign Office, have generated speculation in the
Waist German press that Bonn is changing the focus of its
fa~reign policy to one of global orientation as opposed
t~~ its traditional concentration on Europe and the US.
The Foreign Office has admitted that West Germany
i:s placing increased emphasis on the third world, but
denied that Bonn's traditional policies will suffer
a;s a result. We believe that Bonn's more active dip-
lomacy in the third world reflects the fact that West
Germany has--to a large extent--accomplished its foreign
policy objectives vis-a-vis Western and Eastern
Europe. In addition, Bonn realizes that it must play
a more active role in the third world because the Arab
oil embargo and subsequent events made it clear that
world-wide economic interdependence is a fact of life.
~i'he spate of recent diplomatic visits are in them-
s-elves enough to provide speculation about a changed
emphasis in West German foreign policy. In recent weeks,
Chancellor Schmidt has visited China and Iran; Foreign
Minister Genscher has visited three countries in South
America and travelled to Israel; one state secretary in
the Foreign Office has travelled throughout Southeast
Asia; another toured Central America.. In addition,
Genscher made an African tour earlier in the year.
A statement from the Foreign Office issued after
Genscher returned from South America in late November
apparently has provided even further impetus to this
speculation.
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The Foreign Office's statement said t:he North-
South dialogue is becoming an increasingly central
theme in Bonn's foreign policy. The Foreign Office
emphasized, however, that this new attitude in no
way implies neglect of West Germany's traditional
policies toward Western and Eastern Europe or its
efforts toward detente.
Der Spiegel has since printed an article in which
it claimed that, while on his trip to Latin America,
Genscher "divided the world." The US and Japan were
given Asia, while West Germany was described as the
"born partner" for the Mediterranean littoral states in
Southern Eruope, the Middle East and NortYA Africa and
for Black Africa and Latin America.
The Foreign Office is disturbed by the way the
press has over-played or misinterpreted it;s statement,
and has issued a steady stream of comments downplaying
the idea that Bonn has made any fundamental changes.
Genscher on November 30 reiterated that the
pillars on which West German foreign policy rest are
the EC and NATO. Other Foreign Office officials
have denied that West Germany intends to penetrate
"US domains" like Latin America.
The new interest in the third world by Bonn is
something of a natural phenomenon. In the immediate
post-war period and Adenauer era, Bonn's foreign policy
objective was to re-integrate West Germany into Western
Europe. This goal was achieved. In the Bost-Adenauer
era, first under Chancellor Erhard and then more
emphatically under Chancellor Brandt, West. Germany's
goal was to normalize relations with the USSR and
Eastern Europe. This goal has also been largely
accomplished.
Thus, it appears quite natural for West Germany to
turn its attention to the third world, an area it has
heretofore relatively neglected.
December 9 , 19 75
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The economic facts of life also help explain why
Bonn is looking more toward the third world. West
Germany is dependent on Arab oil and its economy is
export-oriented. As Genscher explained, policy
vis-a-vis the third world involves "political fields
(diplomacy) and economic cooperation." And the Foreign
Office has stated that the principles of an intensified
North-South dialogue are partnership, non-interference
and rejection of exploitation.
It appears, therefore, that West Germany will main-
tain a more active diplomacy toward the third world.
In some areas of the world, Bonn will be competing in an
economic sense with the US. But, if handled adroitly
by the West Germans, their expanding their political
horizons ma rove to be beneficial for the West.
December 9, 1975
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