Negotiators to set out new timetable for draft treaty

Date: 27/06/1996

By Rory Watson

NEGOTIATORS face the daunting task next week of translating clear instructions from EU leaders to accelerate the Intergovernmental Conference into action.

The IGC group will meet informally in the Irish city of Cork to work out a timetable to ensure a draft revised EU treaty can be tabled at the end-of-year summit meeting in Dublin.

“The group will start their discussions in a new frame of mind as they have been given a good boost by last weekend's Florence summit and a clear mandate which they must now implement,” said one diplomat.

France and Germany, in particular, have been pressing for the IGC to move into a higher gear, but the prospect of negotiators being forced to take positions on specific proposals has even been supported by the UK.

“The analysis of the issues is at present sufficiently advanced. The conference can now turn to seeking balanced solutions to the main political issues raised,” EU leaders noted unanimously in their summit declaration.

Discussions on precise legal texts will inject a new element of tension into the talks, highlighting the divisions between those member states which want to continue building on the Union's existing foundations and those which want either to slow down the pace or turn the Union in a different direction.

The atmosphere is also likely to be soured by the UK government's recent policy of non-cooperation. Despite the truce in the beef war, several countries have signalled that they want sanctions written into the revised treaty to penalise such behaviour. Others intend to use the episode as justification for extending decision-making by majority vote.

To ensure the momentum does not flag, an extra summit meeting is being planned for October.

When the Italians hand over the Union baton to Ireland next Monday (1 July), chairmanship of the IGC group will pass from Silvio Fagiolo to his Irish counterpart Noel Dorr. He has already scheduled an intense series of two-day meetings almost every week from mid-July until early December.

By formally setting an end-of-year date for a draft revised treaty to be put on the table, Florence has set the IGC negotiators off on a race against time.