Europe Community Agrees to Deliver Soviet Food Aid

BRUSSELS — The European Community and Moscow ended months of haggling Thursday and agreed to begin the delivery of $258 million in emergency food aid to Soviet schools, hospitals and other institutions by early July.

But EC and Soviet officials said they have not concluded an accord on the $840 million in technical help promised by EC heads of state at their December, 1990 summit in Rome.

The agreement on food aid came after five months of debate between officials in Moscow and Brussels over how best to ensure that the food reaches the poor, young and neediest people in the major Soviet cities rather than corrupt government officials or middlemen.

EC officials said they hope deliveries of 80,000 tons of food, mainly milk powder and baby food as well as processed pork and beef, will begin to arrive in hospitals, kindergartens and other social institutions no later than early July. A second 12,700-ton, $35-million emergency food aid package was also approved by negotiators.

“We are aware that this is not very satisfactory, so we are trying to deliver some portions, especially the processed beef, more rapidly,” said Horst Krenzler, EC director general for external relations.