Chirac and Kohl cooperate to identify common ground

Date: 21/03/1996

By Thomas Klau

WITH a flurry of almost daily telephone calls and meetings, senior French and German officials are using the last remaining days before the launch of the Intergovernmental Conference to fine tune their common approach before the negotiations begin.

While press coverage of the public pronouncements made by ministers in both countries may focus on the differences between the two over issues such as the powers of the European Parliament, diplomats insist substantial progress has been made in key areas.

Officials in Bonn maintain that they are not overly concerned by recent policy statements delivered by French ministers, saying these are often little more than set speeches designed to reassure home audiences.

Meanwhile, top diplomats and other civil servants are working relentlessly on narrowing the differences between two governments coming from vastly different ideological traditions. The key task, say officials involved in these intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, is to identify common ground and jointly decide which subjects to focus on during the IGC talks.

While high-profile clashes over issues such as the Parliament's degree of involvement in the IGC monopolise public attention, diplomats sweat over the blueprints of new decision-making mechanisms designed to increase the number of policies the EU can agree on swiftly and efficiently.

The discussions, diplomats say, are focusing almost exclusively on improving the workings of the so-called second and third pillars of the Maastricht Treaty, covering foreign and defence issues as well as police and judicial cooperation.

Other issues ranking high with the public, such as unemployment and social protection, are barely being touched upon as there is a quiet consensus between diplomats from both countries that the EU cannot usefully contribute to the solution of these problems.

The aim of the constant networking, officials explain, is neither to prepare policy statements translated into snappy sound bites, nor to confront the IGC's other participants with a formalised common Franco-German approach.

“That would not be very politic,” says a diplomat involved in the talks. “We don't want to upset other countries by giving them the feeling that they are being excluded.”

A crucial breakthrough, sources in Bonn and Paris stress, is the agreement on a mechanism of constructive abstention in Council, designed to ensure that a majority of countries can press ahead with a joint foreign policy action in the face of opposition from a minority.

However, and not surprisingly for two governments with such sharply diverging European policy backgrounds, areas of disagreement do remain inspite of mutual efforts to narrow them down to a minimum.

Despite strong German lobbying for more Community action against cross-border crime and illegal immigration, the French government remains wary of introducing systematic majority voting on judicial and home affairs.

Germany, meanwhile, is resisting French pressure to increase the involvement of national parliaments in EU decision-making, which Paris claims is necessary to ensure that joint policies - particularly on justice and home affairs issues - are being subjected to a sufficient degree of democratic control.

“Our proposal for a high council (made up from representatives of national parliaments) with ex ante consultative powers has not been met with much enthusiasm from the Germans,” acknowledged one French diplomat.

France's adamant refusal to give the Parliament an observer role during the IGC negotiations reportedly has its roots in strong opposition from French President Jacques Chirac himself. The irascible Chirac, say French observers, is still smarting from MEPs' vocal criticism of his decision to run a series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific last year.

But both France and Germany agree that European defence cooperation should be substantially strengthened.

Chirac's sudden decision to abandon military conscription and switch to a professional army with a substantially-reduced number of troops caused dismay in the German defence community, which finds it increasingly difficult to justify maintaining conscription in Germany itself.

But while German Defence Minister Volker Rühe did little to hide his irritation at what he perceived as a lack of bilateral consultation, diplomats see the French initiative as another sign of France's increasing trust in Germany.

“One should not overlook the fact that a Gaullist president has now opted for a French army with half the troop strength of Germany's,” said a Bonn diplomat.

“If you were looking for another sign of the degree of mutual trust we have achieved, there you have it.”