Bruton calls for more urgency in IGC talks

Date: 03/10/1996

By Rory Watson

THIS weekend's EU summit in Dublin will aim to revitalise talks on the Union's future by spelling out the longer-term consequences if the negotiations falter or become deadlocked.

In his pre-summit letter to other EU leaders, Irish Prime Minister John Bruton urges them not to consider the work of the Intergovernmental Conference in isolation, warning that they must take account of the challenges of enlargement and the international status of the Union in the years ahead.

The summit is expected to confirm the timetable already sketched out for the IGC talks, with an outline of a draft treaty to be prepared for the next meeting of EU leaders in mid-December and final agreement by the end of next June.

But behind this facade of unity, French President Jacques Chirac is likely to argue forcefully that negotiators should be instructed to concentrate on a handful of pivotal issues. Heading the list are moves to strengthen the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and efforts to tackle pan-European justice and police issues.

Franco-German attempts to agree a common approach to these two issues are beginning to yield results. After a meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers yesterday (2 October), the two reported that they had made progress on the question of majority voting on home and justice affairs issues and agreed on the need to boost the CFSP. But they remain at odds over German calls for a further extension of the European Parliament's powers.

France's Hervé de Charette insisted once again that it was vital to stick to the IGC timetable. This reflects French fears that the talks are in danger of drifting as governments add a wide range of other, secondary, issues to an already crowded agenda. But its tactic of narrowing the scope of the talks is not widely supported.

“We do not think issues can be left out at this stage. That is not our approach as we feel it might not be very productive. There are 15 partners involved and all of them have their own priorities. It is impossible to rule out some items,” said a senior Dutch official, whose government takes over the EU presidency in January.

Governments are playing down expectations for this weekend's special summit. Most expect EU leaders to do little more than crack the political whip over the heads of the IGC negotiators. Even Paris and Bonn are holding their fire, stating that their goal is to produce a joint initiative ahead of the next EU summit in December. Both are anxious to allay fears that they are trying to railroad their EU partners at this stage in the negotiations.

The Irish presidency's bid to discover where member states would be prepared to exchange national vetoes for more majority voting has also met with a distinctly muted response. Two weeks after IGC chairman Noel Dorr distributed questionnaires asking governments to indicate where they accepted, opposed or were prepared to consider an end to unanimity, only two replies have come in.

Apart from Ireland, the only other country which has so far completed the questionnaire is the UK. It had little difficulty doing so, having always insisted it would “oppose further extension of qualified majority voting”.