Dublin attempts to inject political reality into talks

Date: 04/07/1996

By Rory Watson

IGC negotiators will this weekend be asked to look beyond the horizon and imagine how their political leaders might sell the new treaty to a sceptical public next year.

The instruction to inject an element of political reality into the IGC talks represents a determined effort by the incoming Irish EU presidency to put some much-needed momentum into the debate.

It also reflects a recognition that efforts must start to be made now if referenda on the new treaty are to be successful.

“It is important at this stage that those involved in the IGC should paint a picture in their minds of what political leaders will say to their people on the night before the polls and work back from that. We need to get away from stating national positions. We will be asking that some time be devoted to that discussion this weekend,” said Irish Prime Minister John Bruton.

The three-day informal meeting opening in Cork tomorrow (5 July) will be the first opportunity for Irish IGC chairman Noel Dorr and his colleagues to establish a strategy to ensure they respect their new target of producing a draft treaty by the end of the year.

“The Irish want to attack the heart of the matter and produce draft texts, and where they cannot - as on a common foreign and security policy - then to try at least to get common points on the table,” explained a senior official.

IGC negotiators are also expected to use the meeting to indicate the political lessons their governments have drawn from the UK's non-cooperation policy over beef.

The Irish government has specifically indicated that it wishes to hear its partners' views on the issue of flexibility - the question of whether some member states should be allowed to integrate policies further and faster than others.

Some observers believe the British tactic of blocking any decision requiring unanimity until it got agreement on a framework for lifting the beef export ban will boost the demands for more majority voting. But others anticipate that the bitter fall-out from the episode will instead strengthen support for more flexibility in EU policy-making.

“When flexibility first came up, everyone suggested leaving it to the end. But the 'mad cow' saga has changed that view. The problem is that the UK sees flexibility as the right of a minority to opt out, while the rest consider it as the right of the majority to go ahead,” said one negotiator.

The Commission proposed yesterday that the co-decision procedure, which allows MEPs to veto legislation, should be extended to cover social policy, transport, indirect taxation and agriculture. In a report to the IGC, it argued that this would increase democracy, strengthen the European Parliament's legislative role and simplify decision making.