Presidency caravan set to tour the length and breadth of island nation

Date: 11/12/1997

By Rory Watson

ANYONE planning to follow the UK presidency caravan as it wends its way around the Union circuit during the first half of next year would be well advised to have an accurate map handy.

The regular trips to Council of Ministers meetings in Brussels and Luxembourg or to European Parliament plenary sessions in Strasbourg should pose few problems. But attendance at informal meetings in the UK will definitely require a good geographical knowledge of the country.

Although many of the venues were chosen by the previous Conservative government before it was voted out of office in May, the decision to spread meetings throughout the land coincides perfectly with the Labour Party's commitment to decentralised government.

But at least on this occasion there has been no attempt to use a location which could lead the unwary into an embarrassing trap, as occurred during an earlier UK presidency in the Eighties.

With foreign ministers scheduled to hold their informal two-day meeting at Leeds Castle, a French correspondent, with understandable Gallic logic, travelled north to one of the cradles of the industrial revolution, the Yorkshire city of Leeds.

Only when he arrived in the north of England did he learn that he was 350 kilometres away from the action, which was taking place in the heart of the Kent countryside.

After Edinburgh enjoyed the international limelight in December 1992, it will be Cardiff's turn in June to host the European summit which will be the climax of the six-month presidency.

But the Scottish capital will not be totally absent from the Euro-scene. It will welcome foreign ministers in the middle of March for their regular informal get-together. Originally selected on the grounds that it was the political base of the former Conservative Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, it is equally handy for his Labour successor Robin Cook, whose own constituency is next door in Livingston.

Finance Minister Gordon Brown has not been so lucky. He might have enjoyed inviting his counterparts to the Scottish city of Dunfermline, which he represents in the British parliament and one of whose most famous sons was Andrew Carnegie. A self-made businessman turned public benefactor, the American steel magnate exemplified the virtues of competitiveness and sound finances so valued by the Union today.

Instead, Brown will welcome his colleagues to York in late March for a crucial meeting for all aspiring single currency members. Given the city's strong Viking traditions, Swedish and Danish participants should still feel at home despite their opposition to the euro.

Nor will London miss out on the action. It has been selected to play host to the launch of the European Conference in February when existing and potential EU members will participate in a major jamboree looking ahead to enlargement of the Union.

Birmingham, the site of a hastily arranged summit in October 1992, will provide the setting for an informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers this time round.

Like confetti, other informal ministerial gatherings are being spread throughout the country: Cambridge (internal market), London (social and education), Macclesfield (culture), Chester (environment and transport), Newcastle (agriculture) and Glasgow (regional and spatial planning).