BRUSSELS : How Much Sovereignty?

Questions of national sovereignty--and how much to yield--will loom large when finance ministers of the European Community nations meet today to try to shape a treaty binding the 12 EC members into ever-tighter economic union.

The ministers are expected to focus on whether and how fast to replace the British pound, the German mark and the other EC currencies with a single European Currency Unit (to be called an ecu). France wants to move full speed ahead toward establishing the ecu in the middle of the 1990s. Germany has practical reservations; Britain worries about the loss of sovereignty that a common currency implies.

Heads of state and government of the 12 EC nations hope to put the final touches on a new treaty of economic and monetary union when they meet Dec. 9 and 10.