Different Voices

Date: 21/10/1999

• “I have never had any patience for OK-Corral-style industrial relations or OK-Corral politics.” European Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock when asked if he expected a showdown with the institution's unions over his plans to reform the way staff are consulted.
• “The key thing in the Intergovernmental Conference is knowing whether each country is driven by motives of power or domestic opinion - in which case the project is destined to fail - or whether they grasp the need for Europe to assert itself in the world and make a success of enlargement.” Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres calling on the EU's 15 member states to approach the next round of treaty reform talks with the interests of Europe as a whole in mind.
• “The success of the Freedom Party in Austria has made it very clear that it is easy to stir up the vague fears and anxieties of people and to misuse them for one's own election campaign purposes.” The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in a statement released to coincide with the start of the Tampere summit.
• “These attacks are reminiscent of the rhetoric pumped out during the Uruguay Round.” Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler rejecting recent US attacks on the Union's farm policy, saying they were “totally unfounded and grossly misleading”.