ABSTRACT
The political divisions within the ec were further accentuated during November and December. France tried to exploit the crisis to press through a common ec energy policy and, moreover, with the support of London, to pursue a European-Arab dialogue. Washington also began to get more directly involved in managing the oil crisis. The differences between the Nine reached a climax during the ec Summit held in Copenhagen on December 14 and 15. Although there were also hopeful reports reaching The Hague, the situation for the Dutch during the weeks from November 6 to December 14 seemed worse than it had been throughout the whole crisis. It was in fact during this stage, as we shall see in Chapter 6, that tough domestic measures were decided, including the issue of rationing coupons. In this chapter, we shall look at the developments from the ec meeting of Foreign Ministers on November 5 and 6 up to the European Summit in December.
