Fudge and be damned

Date: 03/10/1996

Europe's leaders will gather in Dublin this weekend for a summit which many believe should never have been called in the first place.

EU diplomats and officials privately acknowledge that the risk of a high-profile flop is enormous.

The onus to ensure the entire exercise does not backfire lies with the heads of state and government who, ignoring their misgivings about the wisdom of doing so, decided to bow to French President Jacques Chirac's demands for a special summit now.

Many critics of the slow progress being made in the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations point the finger of blame at the failure of EU leaders to do much more so far than produce endless streams of platitudes about the need to prepare for the challenges of the 21st century.

What is lacking is a clear vision of exactly what this round of IGC talks is intended to achieve and how to go about realising those goals.

While no one would expect this weekend's summit to produce any concrete agreement on specific issues - and nor should it attempt to do so - EU leaders should be acutely aware that they cannot go on prevaricating indefinitely.

If, as many suspect, member states have lowered their sights and now have less ambitious goals for this IGC than they had at the outset, they should come clean. If they have not, they should not be afraid to say so in the clearest possible terms.

The worst possible outcome would be another fudge which fuels yet more speculation that EU leaders have lost heart in the process, making it even more difficult to inject new impetus into the talks.

The longer that speculation - if unfounded - continues, the more damaging it will be.

The lessons of Maastricht are there for all to see: if the public is not involved in the debate about the key issues facing the IGC and does not know what to expect from the current round of negotiations, the risk of another grassroots backlash against whatever is eventually agreed will increase.

What is needed from Dublin is a clear statement of the conference's objectives and clear guidelines for the negotiators on what the priority issues must be. Only then will they stop going around in circles like “whirling dervishes”, in the words of French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette, and begin to make progress.

If they do not, the current stalemate is likely to continue and public disillusionment with the whole process will grow.