20 January General Affairs Council

Date: 23/01/1997

ON THE day President Bill Clinton started his second term in office, Union foreign ministers said they wanted to end a shaky period of transatlantic relations and put EU-US ties on a fresh footing. They welcomed Clinton's decision to extend for six months his suspension of the Helms-Burton law allowing Americans to sue Europeans for doing business in Cuba. But they said the move was not enough to satisfy fully the EU, which wants the measure abolished altogether. They also expressed concern at another US law the D'Amato Act which punishes Europeans for investing in the oil sector in Iran or Libya. The Union next meets the US at a summit in The Hague in May, and the Dutch presidency wants the meeting to herald ever-closer links between the world's two biggest trading partners.

MINISTERS instructed their ambassadors in Coreper to continue work on the European Commission's report on the creation of a new dynamic in the Union's relations with the south east Asian nations of ASEAN. The group of seven nations has plans for a free trade zone in 2003, and Europe wants to remain a key trading partner for the bloc. The 15 EU governments want to sew up a common position to take to two meetings in Singapore next month: the EU-ASEAN meeting on 13-14 February and a summit which will also include China and Japan, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on 15 February. At a joint press conference, French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette and his German counterpart Klaus Kinkel declared that Europe-Asian relations were a key priority “for all of us”, and added: “Asia is our new common frontier.”

BRIEFED on progress at December's World Trade Organisation talks in Singapore, EU foreign ministers agreed they want three major international trade agreements completed to deadline: the basic telecommunications services accord, the information technology agreement and the financial services agreement.

MINISTERS pushed for more movement in negotiations towards association agreements with Egypt and Jordan, which are blocked because of disputes over access for their agricultural produce to EU markets. Ministers also want talks with Lebanon to move forward, and External Relations Commissioner Manuel Marín said he might go to Beirut next month. Two more Mediterranean nations have yet to start talks with the Union: Algeria and Syria. De Charette said it was necessary to start talks with them as soon as possible. He also said the problems with Cairo, Beirut and Amman were “technical” and “not insurmountable”.

KINKEL and De Charette expressed concern about instability in Serbia. At their joint press conference, they said the Union would send “an urgent appeal to the Belgrade authorities” asking them to implement immediately a series of requests from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). At the same time, they warned the authorities of Bosnia and Croatia that any more financial aid from the EU would come only if they complied fully with the provisions of the Dayton Agreement.

THE French and German ministers shared the limelight with their Dutch colleague Hans van Mierlo, who presided over the meeting. Kinkel and De Charette said they were holding the news conference to express their support for the Dutch presidency, but their repeated statements that the Franco-German team should lead Europe offended some in The Hague. “France and Germany are closing ranks,” said Kinkel. “We hope the Franco-German tandem will be the stimulation for closer European integration.” To the surprise of some Dutch and Danish observers Kinkel added: “Our European partners should not be suspicious. We want to go forward as a Franco-German tandem and we want to be the motor of Europe.”