Yugoslavia Dropped From Aid List : Europe: Some countries complain that U.S. isn’t shouldering its share in providing donations.

The 24 industrial nations responsible for aid to Eastern Europe excluded Yugoslavia from the list of eligible recipients Monday but admitted Albania and the new Baltic nations, and many of the 24 criticized the United States for not shouldering a fair share of the donations.

The United States has pledged less than 8% of the roughly $32 billion committed by the 24 nations. That contrasts with 81% from Western Europe and more than 30% from Germany alone.

“I think the United States and Japan could do a bit more,” said Frans Andriessen, the European Community official responsible for coordinating the aid effort of the group of 24 nations.

German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said it is “not acceptable” that Germany was being asked to play so hefty a role in the aid program. And Silvio Arioli, a member of the Swiss delegation to the meeting, added: “Some non-European countries of the G-24 have not yet pledged adequate participation.”

The U.S. delegation, headed by Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, declined to comment publicly on its contribution. Sources in the closed G-24 meeting said that U.S. officials offered no promises that they would do more.

Yugoslavia’s exclusion from the G-24 aid program followed last week’s adoption of economic sanctions against it by the European Community and the United States.

The donor nations differed among themselves over whether to assist some of Yugoslavia’s republics--notably Croatia and Slovenia--but exclude Serbia, which is widely viewed in the West as the aggressor in Yugoslavia’s civil war. Some donor nations, including the United States, believe that aid to individual republics would be tantamount to diplomatic recognition, which they are not ready to confer.

Representatives of the Eastern European nations that are new to the G-24 aid program were less than effusive in their gratitude. Estonian Foreign Minister Lennart Meri said aid needed to be quicker and more precisely matched with the recipients’ needs. “The willingness is there,” he said. “The time factor is our main concern.”

Meri said that his country, which became independent of the Soviet Union in September after a half-century of Communist control, faced numerous expenses not shared by the former Soviet satellite nations of Eastern Europe. For example, he said, Estonia has so far been able to establish only one embassy, in nearby Sweden.

Latvian Foreign Minister Janis Jurkans pleaded with the industrial nations to help his country become more like them. “During the last 75 years, two economic systems existed on the face of this Earth,” Jurkans said. “One flourished, another collapsed.

“Unfortunately, Latvia was forced to be on the losing side. All that has made Japan powerful, the United States enormous, the European Community vibrant and full of opportunity--all of these things have passed us by.”

The donor nations praised political developments in many of the recipient nations of Eastern Europe. For example, in their declaration at the end of the meeting, the G-24 welcomed recent elections in Poland and Bulgaria and the new government installed in Romania last month.

But several countries questioned whether the donor nations are matching their rhetoric with financial commitment. Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Nastase told the meeting that his country needs $3 billion just to buy enough food and fuel to get through the winter.

“The government counted on promised external support, including the financial one, which did not come as expected,” Nastase said. “This is the case, for instance, of the $1 billion expected from the G-24.”

Nastase warned that Romania’s old Communist leaders could stage a comeback if the forces of democracy cannot improve the people’s standard of living.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Stoyan Ganev said the $14 million already received from the G-24 has fallen far short of what was needed to provide adequate safety provisions for its Kozloduy nuclear plant, a Chernobyl-type reactor that is one of the world’s most dangerous. Meantime, he said, the partial shutdown of the plant has made Bulgaria dependent on foreign aid to pay for its energy needs.

Andriessen, as chairman of the G-24 assistance program, stressed the importance of providing not only direct financial help but also open markets for Eastern European products.

But here, too, the Eastern European countries are dissatisfied. Negotiations for associate EC membership for Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary remain delayed by disputes over the EC’s willingness to buy those countries’ agricultural products, textiles and steel.

Although the G-24 pledged $32 billion to Eastern Europe since the beginning of last year, Andriessen acknowledged that only about a quarter of that sum has been disbursed. Most of the aid is in the form of loans, loan guarantees and other “soft” money. Only about $8 billion consists of outright grants.

The United States has pledged about $2.5 billion of the $32 billion, making it the third-largest individual donor after Germany ($10 billion) and Japan ($2.75 billion). But of the $8 billion in total grants, the United States has provided $1.35 billion, or almost 17%, putting it in second place behind Germany’s $2.3 billion.