EC Takes Steps to Keep East Europe on Track : Stability: The move by West reflects concern that momentum toward free markets could be reversed.

The European Community, shaken by last month’s ultimately unsuccessful coup in the Soviet Union, took some cautious steps Wednesday to prevent the same thing from happening in Eastern Europe.

The EC’s measures were aimed at cementing relations between the industrial countries of Western Europe and the newly emerging democracies of the East, from the relatively well-established governments of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to the Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The move reflects Western Europe’s concern that if it does not reach out to Eastern Europe, the momentum toward democracy and free-market economies there could be reversed, just as it appeared to have been in the Soviet Union during last month’s attempted coup.

“We are living in a very different kind of Europe from the one we grew up in,” said Frans Andriessen, EC commissioner for external affairs. Western Europe, he said, must change with the times.

The full European Commission--in essence the Cabinet of the community’s government--agreed to take Andriessen’s proposals to a meeting here Friday of the foreign ministers of the 12 EC nations. Acceptance by the ministers, which is considered likely, will move Western Europe another stride closer, not only economically but also politically, to the East.

In particular, the European Commission agreed to:

* Seek more maneuvering room in negotiating associate membership for Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the Western European economic club.

* Explore the possibility of negotiating similar status for Romania and Bulgaria.

* Seek a trade and economic cooperation agreement with Albania.

* Discuss programs of direct economic assistance with the Soviet Union’s Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Andriessen acknowledged that the commission’s actions put all nine countries on a path that could ultimately lead to full community membership.

The path has already proved bumpy for Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, which are the furthest along. The goal of associate membership is a free-trade zone, but the three Eastern European nations have complained that the EC, in more than six months of talks, has refused to drop its barriers to Eastern European steel, textiles and agricultural products.

After the aborted Soviet coup, the three Eastern European nations appealed individually to the EC for what Andriessen characterized as “a more intense political dialogue.”

Spokesmen for the three nations indicated that the EC would have to show more flexibility in steel, textile and farm trade.

Andriessen declined to be more specific than to say he would ask the EC foreign ministers for “more margin of maneuver” in the talks with the three nations.

He too admitted, however, that steel, textiles and farm products had become particular sticking points. The 12 EC nations, whose steelmakers, textile producers and farmers are already feeling intense pressure from international competition, have been reluctant to open their doors to imports from any direction.

Just starting on the path toward ties with the EC are Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Baltic republics, while not yet countries, have been told by Soviet authorities that they will be granted independence, and the EC nations have extended diplomatic recognition.

“We will have to determine how we will establish relations with these countries of the future,” Andriessen said. One early step, he said, would be to add the Baltic states to the list of Eastern European countries qualifying for EC economic aid.