BRUSSELS, Oct. 29, 1993 (UPI) - European Community leaders Friday approved a series of mainly symbolic measures intended to ''relaunch Europe'' at a special summit originally intended to celebrate closer ties under the Maastricht treaty.
They identified five areas for ''joint action'' in which they can bring to bear the tighter political cooperation mandated under the treaty, which takes effect Monday, and decided to put the EC's future central bank in Frankfurt, Germany.
Although the heads of state and government had a narrow agenda that skirted deep rifts among the 12 member states, several of them took the opportunity to call for measures that will create employment and halt a recession that is expected to put 20 million people in the EC out of a job by next year.
Following the difficulties in getting the treaty ratified, they also called vowed to create a union responsive to its citizens. ''We do want to learn the lessons of the debate that took place during ratification,'' said Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, whose country holds the rotating six-month EC presidency.
In the run-up to final ratification, the EC was thrown into disarray over economic policies and political goals. The treaty was got a narrow ''oui'' from French voters, squeaked by in Ireland, was rejected by Danish voters once before it was approved and was nearly sunk in the British Parliament.
The EC heads vowed to take unspecified tandem action to promote stability and peace in Europe, further the peace process in the Mideast, encourage multi-racial democracy in South Africa, seek a negotiated solution to the war in the former Yugoslavia and help Russia hold fair parliamentary elections in December.
Touching on what has become the EC's biggest headache, Dehaene said the treaty would help reduce ''the scourge of unemployment,'' but he conceded it was ''no miracle cure.''
British Prime Minister John Major criticized Europe's track record over the last decade in creating jobs and called for the European Commission to include as part of an economic road map it is drawing up reductions in Europe's generous welfare schemes.
''As far as (economic) growth and unemployment are concerned, we are lagging behind'' the concerns of the people, he told his colleagues. ''Their highest need is to see all Europe moving out of recession, all Europe creating new jobs and all Europe heading for sustainable and non- inflationary growth.''
Major said 45 percent of the jobless in the EC were out of work because of structural defects in the economy that will not be changed by an upturn, compared with 6 percent in the United States and 18 percent in Japan. He said the community should cut labor costs, improve worker skills and avoid the temptation of trade barriers.
As the leaders conferred, thousands of union members marched through downtown Brussels to protest austerity measures being considered by the Belgian government, underscoring a crisis that could rock the foundations of the EC by next year.
Workers in Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal and Italy have all taken to the streets over the past week to protest plans that would curb their salaries or put them out of a job, and analysts said further unrest is likely.
EC Commission President Jacques Delors outlined for the leaders a proposal he is preparing for the regular summit in December that calls for more spending on infrastructure.
The leaders also opted to give the European Monetary Institute to Germany, whose Deutsche mark forms the foundation of the EC's basket of currencies. The move followed an hours-long horse-trading session in which countries competed to win the sites of several desirable agencies.
The heads of state and government also named 64-year-old Alexandre Lamfalussy of Belgium to head of the prototype EC central bank.
The EMI, the forerunner of an EC central bank, will start working Jan. 1, 1994. With Lamfalussy at the helm, it will have the job of coordinating monetary policy by the 12 EC central banks and preparing the way for a single European currency during the second phase of monetary union.
However, the Bundesbank and other individual central banks will maintain control and responsibility for the individual currencies until the third phase of money union, planned for 1997 at earliest and 1999 at latest, when those countries will adopt a single currency.
