Confounding the critics

Date: 21/12/1995

It was a year which began with enormous uncertainty, as new Commission President Jacques Santer and his team took up their new posts and the European Union as a whole began taking its first hard look at the challenges facing it in the run-up to the 21st century.

Twelve months later, huge questionmarks remain over key issues such as what the EU must do to prepare itself for enlargement to the east and how it should react if the intransigence of a few blocks all progress at next year's Intergovernmental Conference.

But one set of crucial questions has now been answered, with agreement at the Madrid summit on the name of the single currency and the transition scenario for moving to economic and monetary union on 1 January 1999, confounding critics of the plan fond of predicting that agreement was impossible given the enormous problems involved.

And despite growing doubts in some quarters about how quickly the Union will be able to expand to include the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, as well as Cyprus and Malta, summiteers also succeeded in reaching agreement on a strategy for handling membership applications over the coming years.

EU leaders were right to resist pressure from Germany for a two-tier approach to enlargement, with some countries given priority treatment while others trailed in their wake. While it is undoubtedly true that some will be ready to join the EU far sooner than others, it is vital to avoid doing anything which would make those lagging behind feel that they are being treated as second class citizens, thereby undermining their governments' efforts to bring about the reforms needed to prepare for membership.

EU leaders also succeeded in avoiding the pitfalls which could have derailed their discussions on next year's Maastricht Treaty review, by simply agreeing on the start date for the negotiations without attempting to set the agenda at this stage. To do so would have risked open confrontation between member states, making eventual agreement at the IGC much harder to achieve.

Speaking before the Madrid summit, Santer expressed the hope that it would “end the uncertainty and show that the Union is on track”.

The Commission president's wish was granted at what many observers have described as the most successful summit for years.

With so many topics vital to the EU's future on the agenda, the potential for serious argument was enormous. The fact that EU leaders avoided them, despite some sniping from the sidelines from UK Prime Minister John Major designed largely for domestic consumption, will do much to boost public confidence in the Union as it prepares for the challenges which lie ahead.

1996 promises to be another difficult year for the Union as the IGC negotiators get down to work. But EU leaders should be comforted by the fact that 1995 has ended on a much more upbeat note than anyone might have expected 12 months ago.