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- The Community and Comecon * The negotiations The Community has long shown its willingness to establish relations with Comecon itself, alongside the bilateral agreements with the Comecon member countries (**). Negotiations for the conclusion of an agreement between the Community and Comecon began in 1977 but were broken off in 1980 by mutual agreement. At that point the main stumbling block for the Community was Comecon's insistence on including trade provisions in the agreement and setting up a joint committee responsible for the general supervision of bilateral relations with the member countries of Comecon. This was unacceptable since Comecon does not possess either a common commercial policy nor a common commercial policy instrument. In 1981 Mr Wilhelm HAFERKAMP, Member of the Commission with special responsibility for external relations, sent a letter to the President of the Executive Committee of Comecon, Mr Andrei LOUKANOV, expressing the Community's readiness to participate in the constructive resumption of dialogue. This letter remained unanswered. * A fresh start ? Since 1984 there have been a number of indications which, taken together, have suggested that Comecon wished to resume the talks. In June 1984 the Comecon summit meeting expressed the organization's wish to conclude an appropriate agreement with the Community. This approach was confirmed during the visit for talks with Mr HAFERKAMP in October 1984 by Mr Christo CHRISTOV, Bulgaria's Foreign Trade Minister. On 30 May 1985, Mr Michail GORBACHOV said when speaking to Mr Bettino CRAXI that it was time for them (i.E. the Community and Comecon) to organize economically advantageous relations with each other. In as much as the EEC countries operated as a political entity, Comecon was prepared - said Mr GORBACHOV - to seek with it a common language on specific international issues as well. On 14 June 1985 the Commission received a letter from Mr Viatcheslaw SYTCHOV, Secretary of Comecon, suggesting the establishment of relations between Comecon and the Community and also a high-level meeting at which a general EEC-Comecon declaration would be adopted. ---------- (*) Known officially as the CMEA - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. (**) 10 members : USSR, German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Cuba and Viet Nam. - 2 - Replying to the Secretary of Comecon on behalf of the Community on 31 July 1985, Mr Willy DE CLERCQ confirmed the Community's readiness to resume dialogue with Comecon but asked that the latter should amplify its position with regard to the content of the proposed declaration. Mr DE CLERCQ also pointed out that the Community still felt that the resumption of relations with Comecon should not affect the Community's present and future relations with the member countries of Comecon and he asked Mr SYTCHOV to indicate Comecon's view on this matter. In his reply of 26 September last year Mr SYTCHOV said that the signing of the declaration and the development of cooperation between the two organizations could create more favourable conditions for the development of relations between the member countries of the CMEA, considered individually, and the EEC, and that this could include the conclusion of appropriate agreements with the EEC by interested CMEA member countries. - The Community and the Comecon member countries In 1974 the Community proposed the conclusion of individual trade agreements, not only to the Comecon member countries but to all state-trading countries. This proposal was ignored by most of the countries approached. Yet economic links have grown up over the years between the Community and the Comecon countries : five textile agreements have been concluded (with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia) plus voluntary restraint arrangements on steel exports from the same countries, and also specific agreements on agricultural products. In addition, a trade Agreement covering industrial products and an Agreement establishing a joint ministerial committee were concluded with Romania. Talks have been going on with the latter country since 1981 with a view to the conclusion of a more comprehensive cooperation agreement. The Comunity remains ready to negotiate bilateral trade agreements with each of the Comecon countries, being convinced that such negotiations - geared to the particular situation ofeach country - would give a fresh impetus to trade relations.