European Leaders Focus on Union, Aiding Gorbachev
European Community leaders, seeking a bigger role on the world stage, agreed Monday to start negotiating political and economic union and sought ways to bolster Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
The opening session of a two-day summit decided that two treaty conferences to negotiate political, economic and monetary union should open Dec. 14 and 15 in Rome.
“It is of tremendous historical importance . . . in the light of developments behind what used to be the Iron Curtain,” said West German spokesman Hans Klein.
The Dutch government, meanwhile, proposed creating a new European Energy Community, in part to help the Soviet Union and other East European countries develop their energy resources.
The question of economic aid to help Gorbachev weather political and economic crisis was discussed over dinner.
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