Irish strive to prevent squabbling at summit

Date: 05/12/1996

By Rory Watson

IRISH Prime Minister John Bruton is fighting to prevent radically different visions of the Union's future from blowing next week's European summit in Dublin badly off course.

Against a background of increasingly vocal Euroscepticism in the UK, the Irish leader is trying to perform a delicate balancing act.

While setting out a path for the Union, he is insisting that the meeting must not degenerate into arguments over the details of Maastricht Treaty reform.

Bruton will hold his final pre-summit meetings with three of the key participants - German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, French President Jacques Chirac and British Premier John Major - in the next few days.

These visits will enable him to gauge their reaction to the first draft version of a new-look treaty, running to over 100 pages, which the Irish government presented to EU governments and the European Commission today (5 December).

“The presidency has endeavoured to reflect in a balanced way in the document the discussions which have taken place at the conference as well as the clear wish of heads of state and government that the conference should retain an adequate level of ambition,” states the introduction to the text.

With the UK insisting that it will firmly oppose any weakening of national vetoes, the draft treaty text specifically avoids some of the most politically-sensitive issues on the EU agenda: policy flexibility, a greater use of majority voting and the future number of Commissioners.

Instead, it spells out in detail possible treaty revisions in a handful of major policy areas, such as justice and home affairs and foreign policy, which are designed to equip the Union “to respond to the challenges ahead and address the aspirations of its citizens”.

Noel Dorr, current chairman of the Intergovernmental Conference talks stressed this week that the document was merely a draft. “We are not asking anyone to sign up to it as a treaty,” he insisted.

By delivering the draft text just hours before a meeting of EU foreign ministers tomorrow (6 December) which will prepare the ground for the 13-14 December summit, Dublin hopes to avoid any attempt to unpick the text line by line. But its strategy is under threat from two directions.

With his back to the wall, UK Prime Minister John Major - attending what is likely to be his last European summit before the British election - may decide to trumpet his government's opposition to potential reforms, including any extension of majority voting.

“I do not think it matters what the Irish do. The temptation for the UK to make a big noise is likely to be just too great,” said one Union diplomat.

Danger of another kind may come from a different quarter as Chirac and Kohl set out their thoughts on EU reform in a joint letter to fellow summiteers. Kohl, in particular, is demanding more majority voting and favours an ambitious treaty reform programme.

Dublin sources are playing down any suggestion that the Franco-German initiative might upset the summit agenda, but it could become a red rag to the UK bull.

Fundamental arguments about the future shape of the Union are not the only threat lurking in the wings. Many fear Chirac's personal agenda could largely determine the success or failure of the summit.

The French president will lobby vigorously to protect France's monopoly postal system against pressure from the liberalisers and may also fire another salvo in the war of words with the Netherlands over the latter's liberal drugs policy.

In addition, EU leaders face the prospect of having to agree the final elements of the stability pact designed to impose budgetary discipline on members of the future EMU-bloc, if finance ministers cannot strike a deal at an emergency meeting to be held on the eve of the summit.