SALZBURG : Euro-Alphabet Soup

Officials of the 12-member European Community and the six nations of the European Free Trade Assn. will convene Monday in Austria to sign an agreement lowering national barriers to the movement of people, goods, and services as of Jan. 1, 1993.

The agreement will create a “European Economic Space” that comprises virtually all of Western Europe, including the 18 member states of the two existing trade groups plus tiny Lichtenstein.

The European Economic Space may be a precursor to the eventual merger into the EC of most of the EFTA countries, which are Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. But the step to be taken early next week will not settle some thorny issues, including quotas that restrict agricultural trade.