Union candidates ask for more detail in IGC summaries

Date: 23/05/1996

By Thomas Klau

THE EU's enlargement candidates have received their first official briefing on progress at the Intergovernmental Conference on EU reform, with the Italian chairman Silvio Fagiolo telling the ten countries' representatives that negotiations have yet to begin in earnest.

Explaining that the first six weeks of the IGC had been devoted to each country stating its position on the subjects under discussion, Fagiolo gave a summary of the first round of talks.

“It was a general presentation of the results of the first month,” said one participant in the two-hour briefing, adding: “It went well, but then we did not expect a major revelation.”

However, the enlargement candidates declared their wish to be given a more detailed presentation in future, and not just a summary.

“We would like to know each country's position,” said a Central European diplomat. “Fagiolo gave us only a summary of the problems discussed, without entering into specifics. This is why we requested the Council (of Ministers) papers reflecting the IGC debate be made available to us in future. Fagiolo promised to pass our request on to EU governments.”

Although the next meeting - possibly at ministerial level - is scheduled for 11 June, a number of Central and Eastern European diplomats expect substantial debate on the key questions facing the IGC not to begin until the second half of this year.

Enlargement candidates' representatives say they have not yet received any clear indication from the Irish government as to how Dublin plans to keep them informed about the IGC's progress during its EU presidency.

Initially, enlargement candidates lobbied for observer status at the IGC, arguing that its outcome would eventually affect them as much as the EU's existing 15 members.

But the Union's refusal to complicate the revision of the Maastricht Treaty by allowing non-members to participate in the closed-doors debate has now been accepted, say diplomats.