DIFFERENT VOICES

Date: 03/10/1996

“The Intergovernmental Conference needs a big push. We have spent over a year going around in circles like whirling dervishes ... and we have not made even half a centimetre of progress.”

French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette stressing the need for this weekend's Dublin summit to inject new vigour into the EU reform process.

“Maintaining unanimity while the number of member states grows will lead to stagnation and retreat.”

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel insisting that an extension of qualified majority voting was top of his list of priorities for the IGC, despite reports that a number of Bonn ministries were holding out against giving up the veto.

“Let me say quite clearly that I can see no conflict between being a British citizen, a proud British citizen even, and a committed European. I carry a German passport and I am a committed European - and I feel no conflict.”

Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies, speaking at the UK Labour Party's annual conference in Blackpool this week.

“The idea that British policy can realistically stop the others going ahead is complete nonsense. There is no means to do so.”

UK Finance Minister Kenneth Clarke rejecting calls from Eurosceptics in his own party for the British government to do all it could to stop the single currency project from going ahead.

“For Germans, the Euro is not just any topic. It is the topic of the past 50 years. It is important, very simply, because it is about money.”

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl spelling out the significance of the EMU project for ordinary citizens in the clearest possible terms.

“Tourism is an important force in developing and strengthening international links - an instrument of peace and friendship, as well as a means of regional development.”

Tourism Commissioner Christos Papoutsis in a message to the industry on World Tourism Day.

“In the last year or two, I believe that the ladders have started to outnumber the snakes.”

Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn insisting that the EU's achievements in the social policy field have outweighed the set-backs.