European Council of London, 26-27/11/1981

The European Council of London convened under the Presidency of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Britain, with the participation of Heads of State and Government of the member states of the European Community. The Council emphasized the commencement of negotiations for the accession of Portugal and Spain to the European Community.
The Council took note of the initiative by the German and Italian Governments regarding European Union. The European Council called on the Foreign Ministers, in cooperation with the Commission, to examine and clarify the German/Italian proposals and to submit a report at a future session of the European Council.
Additionally, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt submitted a report on his meeting (Bonn, 22-25 November) with Leonid Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The European Council fully agreed on the importance of this meeting and on the need to keep East/West channels of communication between governments open at all times.
The Council expressed its satisfaction regarding the commitment of the United States to achieve the goal of significant disarmament through mutual reduction of nuclear and conventional forces and Confidence Building Measures. It stated that it looks forward to the start next week of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union on intermediate-range nuclear weapons and expressed hope that the negotiations will lead to prompt and positive results.
Within the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (now Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the European Council examined the current state of negotiations. Despite the difficulties, they expressed their desire for a positive outcome in the form of a substantial and balanced document by the end of the year, including agreement on a precise mandate for a Conference on Disarmament in Europe to negotiate Confidence Building Measures across Europe.
The Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their willingness, within the limits of the Community’s and its member states’ means and in cooperation with others, to respond to the requests of the Polish government for continued support of the Polish people’s efforts to promote the recovery of their national economy.
Finally, the ongoing tragic situation in Afghanistan was also discussed. They noted that, in flagrant disregard of international public opinion, as expressed in three successive resolutions adopted by overwhelming majorities in the UN General Assembly, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan continued with its consequent repression and bloodshed.