Honour in retreat

Date: 26/10/1995

THE so-called 'Ioannina Compromise' is named after the venue of the informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers under the Greek presidency in March 1994 where it was agreed.

It allows for a 'reasonable period' of reflection to find a compromise on any proposal against which at least 23 votes have been mustered in the Council of Ministers, but less than the 26 required for a normal blocking minority.

The compromise, invoked for the first time at this week's Agriculture Council, was devised to allow an honourable retreat for the then UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, who was despatched to Ioannina by Prime Minister John Major to fight for the maintenance of 23 votes as a blocking minority for qualified majority voting after enlargement on 1 January 1995.

Hurd received little support from other member states, who insisted on the need to raise the number of votes needed to form a blocking minority to 26 out of 87 in a 15-member EU.

To permit Hurd to retreat honour intact, the 'Ioannina Compromise' was adopted to be used in cases of particular national interest.