European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 30, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Jmc it of Tjai Livi Magazine members of dec owns a Turkey Mediterranean sea by James m. Markham new York times optimism seems to have changed venue leaving North America for Europe. As the Reagan Era glides bump ily to an end America appears to be in an introspective and self doubting mood fretting about symptoms of decline. But the old continent both its capitalist and communist halves is palpably gripped by an unusual sense that momentous changes May be just Over the horizon. The shorthand labels for what is coming Are "1992" when the 12-nation european Community is supposed to abolish its frontiers and to the East  the idea of "1992" crystallized when the Western europeans were themselves in the doldrums worrying that they were about to be economically overwhelmed by the japanese juggernaut and an America reawakened by Reagan s contagious optimism. Jacques Delors president of the european commission likes to recall that he explained a Barrier free Europe to Reagan As inspired by the president s push to deregulate american Industry. But until february of this year the Community s leaders seemed condemned to bickering about soybean quotas and Britain s annual budget rebate. Then at an emergency Summit meeting in Brussels they managed to agree on measures to bring the Community s extravagant agricultural subsidy system under control. The aim of abolishing All Trade barriers by the end of 1992 was suddenly transformed from a dubious Mirage into an Odds on possibility. The Community is too aware of the obstacles strewn in its path to have become swept up in a cocky mood of it s morning in  but for the moment gloomy meditations on eur sclerosis and eur pessimism Are out of fashion. Financiers like the italian Carlo de Benedetti have embarked on ambitious Cross Border mergers in order to be Well positioned for the single Market of 320 million Consumers that should come into being in less than five years. Governments Are Rushing to explain the implications of 1992 to their citizens and smaller entrepreneurs. Perhaps the Best measure of the looming reality of 1992 is the lengthening list of nations afraid of getting shut out of the single Market. Norway and Austria Are considering applying for Community membership while Sweden and Switzerland Are anxiously lobbying in Brussels to make sure their economies Are not Hurt. Last week Turkey s president Kenan Evren was in London seeking support for eventual Community membership. And in Brussels the communist trading bloc com econ ended decades of hostility signing a pact to enable communist states to negotiate preferential Community Trade agreements. Com econ even agreed that West Berlin was Community turf. Mikhail s. Gorbachev evidently considers a certain dose of political pluralism As a precondition for reviving the stagnant economies of the communist bloc countries. So for the first time since world War ii communist Bosses in Eastern Europe feel faint winds of liberalization wafting in from Moscow. And the russian Leader can Luxuriate As he did last week in Poland in the novel situation of being greeted As something of a popular hero in Eastern Europe. It is too soon to say How far the political thaw will go. But times have obviously changed Alexander Dubcek the deposed czechoslovak Leader was confident enough to go on austrian television this month and denounce the 1968 soviet led invasion of his country As  Dubcek chastised his own country s communist leadership for being too timid calling on the West to support Gorbachev who seems mindful of the czechoslovak expression communism with a human  in Warsaw last week Gorbachev probably misjudged the ripeness of detente Between the two halves of Europe when he urged a kind of pan european Reykjavik a meeting of All the leaders of All the european countries to discuss one problem How to break the vicious Circle and move from words to action in the area of reducing conventional  Reykjavik a reference to the 1986 Reagan Gorbachev get together is a negative buzzword in much of Western Europe a synonym for abrupt visionary and unsettling initiatives. French president Francois Mitterrand spoke for european commission chief Jacques Delors. Other sceptical Western european leaders when he characterized Gorbachev s Warsaw Appeal As interesting but one that unacceptably assumed that the United states would be uncoupled from the defense of the continent. Yet a More relaxed political climate in communist Europe inevitably makes it easier to thicken a network of human and economic contacts with the West the real stuff of detente. Poles and hungarians no longer need visas to travel to Austria and Hungary is negotiating an arrangement with West Germany that would permit its citizens to pick up visas at the Border. East Germany last year allowed a record 3.4 million of its 16.7 million people to visit West Germany and the emigration of ethnic germans from the soviet Union is at an All time High. Jamming of Western radio broadcasts has been eased. Meanwhile Western european executives Are crossing their fingers for Gorbachev hoping that the economic restructuring called perestroika May mean the flourishing of underdeveloped markets to the East. De Benedetti has been talking up the idea of a Marshall plan for Eastern Europe. It is probably not going too far to argue that the so called Helsinki process referring to the agreement signed in the finnish capital in 1975 by the leaders of 35 nations is working. The Deal underlying the agreement was that the West effectively recognized the postwar division of Europe in Exchange for soviet commitments to improve the lot of the Peoples of Eastern Europe. The division of Europe is about Freedom. Tensions drop As greater Freedom moves eastward. As Long As East germans Are penned in behind a Wall or rumanian Are reduced to penury by a wilful Leader it will be premature to Hail the Advent of real detente in Europe. But already Gorbachev who also attended a Warsaw pact meeting in Poland last week has persuaded Many Western europeans of his Good intentions which Means that the perception of the soviet military threat is weakening. This is bad news for Western politicians who want to sustain military spending at current Levels and it will make it even More difficult for the next american president to get the allies to take up new financial burdens for the common defense. So too the next american administration May find the mood in West Germany altogether allergic to accepting a new Short Range nuclear missile envisaged by nato. Peace has not broken out but Many people think it has. Saturday july 30, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 13