Dutch regard flexibility as the key to success

Date: 09/01/1997

By Rory Watson

THE Dutch government is placing agreement on more flexible EU policies at the heart of its strategy for completing talks on a rejuvenated Union ready for the challenges of the 21st century by the end of June.

Details of the newly-installed EU presidency's tactics for finalising the new Treaty of Amsterdam within the next five months will only emerge at an informal meeting of Intergovernmental Conference negotiators in the Dutch capital early next week.

But it is already clear that the Dutch government does not believe that the tight negotiating timetable can be met if sensitive issues such as reform of Union institutions and giving the green light to some member states to integrate policies more closely than others are postponed until after the UK general election.

“We cannot afford the luxury of losing time. If the elections do not take place until May, then time would be very limited. That is an extra reason for us to invest in negotiations in this period,” Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok said before welcoming British Premier John Major to The Hague this week.

Speaking after the meeting, a senior Dutch source confirmed: “Both prime ministers made it clear that flexibility may be one of the keys that could lead to a successful Treaty of Amsterdam and they are confident that a compromise can be reached.”

The views of other EU governments are currently being canvassed by Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van Mierlo in a whistle-stop tour of almost a dozen European capitals.

By the time next week's two-day informal IGC meeting opens in Amsterdam on Monday (13 January), he will already have met his German, Austrian, French, Portuguese, Irish and Italian counterparts.

In addition to flexibility, in the first two months of their presidency the Dutch are expected to concentrate on ways of rebalancing member states' voting rights in the Council of Ministers, on the need to abolish the unanimity requirement for a range of policy decisions and on the possible overhaul of membership of the European Commission. Special attention will also be paid early on to ways of integrating the Schengen Convention on open borders into the new treaty and on strengthening measures against international crime.

Acutely aware of the need to prevent sensitive EU issues adding further fuel to an already inflammatory electoral atmosphere in the UK, the Dutch presidency deliberately adopted a pragmatic tone this week.

But Commission President Jacques Santer warned that the current IGC represented a last chance for the Union to agree substantial institutional reform before opening membership negotiations with Cyprus and ten central and eastern European countries.

The Commission itself is drawing a large degree of satisfaction from the outline of the new draft treaty tabled last month by the outgoing Irish EU presidency.

An internal analysis discussed by Commissioners this week pointed to several policies, such as the new employment chapter, which are largely in line with the institution's own thinking. But it highlighted other areas external economic relations and a proposed legal personality for the Union where it believed the current draft needed to be strengthened. It also underlined the need for the institution to prepare a clear stance on the key institutional issues ahead.

“The Commission must come up with concrete answers to central questions about the principle of flexibility, such as what principles would apply, what controls would exist, who would operate them and what the Commission's role would be,” said one source involved in the negotiations.