Innsbruck, [End of December], 1969
Reviving the Idea of a United Europe
Despite the frosty winter and the severe flu epidemic that afflicts Europe at this time, an unexpected euphoria of reviving the idea of a United Europe has happened in Brussels. The German Chancellor Willy Brandt and the new French President Georges Pompidou spoke up strongly for European cooperation. They held out the prospect of admitting Great Britain to the Common Market and the association of the neutral countries with it. It appears that the absurd economic partition of Western Europe into the Common Market and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will be overcome. As it turns out again and again, British membership in the Common Market would be a decisive step toward European unity. For small, neutral Austria association with the Common Market would be of vital importance. If this favorable outlook can be taken as a prelude for the 1970s, then the economic and fiscal unity of Western Europe would come closer to realization.