The European commercial policy and the French economic policy: What interaction regarding industrial cooperation? The example of the relationship with Romania (1970-1975)

The introduction of the European common commercial policy proved to be not without consequences on the French détente led in Eastern Europe. Indeed, the French had to negotiate a new kind of economical agreeements which now excluded trade affairs. At stake was the ability, for the French, to maintain and develop a channel for influencing Romania which circumvented the European Commissions’s supervision, thanks to industrial cooperation. But, paradoxically, the French diplomacy was led too, to stand up for the Commission’s prerogatives regarding trade, because of some Romanian claims and some initiatives of the French Western-European partners.