Bid to lift shadow over summit

Date: 13/06/1996

By Rory Watson

THE increasingly bitter tone of day-to-day contacts between the UK and its Union partners is casting a lengthening shadow over next week's European summit in Florence and threatens to sabotage Italy's efforts to end its presidency on a high note.

The Italian government has insisted that it does not want the current arguments over the export ban on British beef to disrupt plans for EU leaders to consider wider issues such as the fight against unemployment and the future of the Union.

As politicians, diplomats and scientific experts indulge in a flurry of last minute activity to try to broker a deal to end the three month dispute, Italian officials pointedly insist that the item is not even on the agenda.

The chances of a breakthrough before the summit could depend on whether the UK decides to accept or reject the Union's Standing Veterinary Committee's demands for an extension of its selective slaughter programme.

The vets' demands to add animals from “at risk” herds born in 1989 to those already covered by the policy is politically difficult for the UK, which has already been forced to double the scope of its original proposal.

In parallel with the scientific efforts to resolve the beef crisis, EU foreign ministers will have a last opportunity to stitch up a political settlement when they meet in Rome on Monday (17 June) to make final preparations for the Florence summit.

“If there is only a messy agreement on beef, whatever else is done, the world will remember Florence as the summit which went off the rails because of the beef dispute,” predicted one senior EU diplomat.

It is that poisoned ambiance which summit participants fear, rather than any practical impact British Prime Minister John Major's non-cooperation policy might have on their deliberations.

“There are really no operational decisions to be taken and even as far as the future of Europol is concerned, the other 14 could possibly take the necessary decision themselves,” suggested one Italian official.

Union diplomats concede that the one spanner which Major could throw into the smooth running of events would be to refuse to approve the final summit conclusions. Failure to adopt these unanimously would rob the Union of the political seal of approval frequently needed from EU leaders before specific initiatives can be translated into legislation.

In a bid to convince Major to change tack, five fellow leaders issued a joint statement this week calling on London to end its blocking policy.

The appeal from the leaders of Germany, Spain, Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg emerged after European Christian Democrats held their traditional pre-summit meeting in Brussels.

Their diplomatic overture came after EU foreign ministers directed a barrage of criticism at the UK filibustering tactics which, British officials claim, have prevented decisions being taken on almost 80 separate items.

French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette revealed that the mood of his colleagues ranged “from irritation to exasperation”, while his Italian colleague and chairman Lamberto Dini confirmed that all other governments “deplored the method of indiscriminate boycotting of EU decisions”.

In a sign this week that the UK's policy might be fraying at the edges, British Foreign Secretary Malcom Rifkind - who has devoted most of the past two weeks to a tour of EU capitals with Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg aimed at winning support for a 'framework' to lift the rest of the UK beef ban - did not block the signing of an association agreement with Slovenia, a mandate for negotiations with Algeria and the release of funds to monitor the Bosnian elections.

But with Major still under pressure from Eurosceptics within his own party, few Brussels observers expect an early shift in tactics.

The British premier's precarious domestic political base was further weakened this week when 74 Conservative MPs defied Major's instructions and supported calls for a referendum on the UK's links with the Union.