Labour win in UK gives fresh hope to IGC talks

Date: 08/05/1997

By Rory Watson

DUTCH Prime Minister Wim Kok will spell out the three key questions about the EU's future which newly elected UK Premier Tony Blair will have to answer when the two meet later this week.

The mini-summit on Friday (9 May) comes just a week after Blair's historic general election victory and days after his government pledged to make a fresh start in UK relations with the rest of the Union.

Kok, whose government is preparing to unveil full details of a proposed new EU treaty within the next two weeks, is hoping to capitalise on the honeymoon being enjoyed by the new UK administration to inject some fresh impetus into the Intergovernmental Conference talks.

The Dutch have identified three key issues which must be resolved if they are to meet their target of wrapping up the IGC talks by the mid-June Amsterdam summit.

Kok will be seeking some sign from Blair of how an accommodation might be reached with the UK over its opposition to the integration of the Western European Union defence alliance into the EU, its doubts about aspects of the new principle of flexibility and its concerns at giving MEPs and the European Court of Justice a greater say over aspects of internal security.

“These are the three key issues where we have to give the government in London some time to assess its position and come to conclusions,” said Dutch European Affairs Minister Michiel Patijn.

There is little doubt that the outlook for the Amsterdam summit appears brighter following the change of government in the UK, but the Dutch are now being forced to watch anxiously the unfolding general election campaign in France.

With opinion polls suggesting the opposition Socialist Party is closing the gap on the outgoing centre-right government, President Jacques Chirac's electoral gamble is beginning to appear less certain than two weeks ago.

Although Chirac's own position is unassailable, an electoral set-back or even the prospect of cohabitation with a Socialist government would restrict his room for manoeuvre and further complicate the chances of an IGC agreement.

Blair's government has engendered an early air of optimism by signalling its determination to end the UK's opt-out from the social agreement, and its willingness to weaken the national veto, give more powers to the European Parliament and support the inclusion of an employment chapter in the revised treaty.

The change in mood following the election was palpable as the UK's new Minister for Europe Doug Henderson became the first member of the recently appointed government to enter the Brussels arena this week. His ten-minute presentation of the Blair administration's approach to the IGC talks was listened to intently - an almost unheard of occurrence in the negotiating hothouse - and he was pursued by a scrum of television cameras when he left.

Although negotiators have only just over five weeks to broker a deal if the Amsterdam deadline is to be met, Henderson confirmed this week that the incoming UK government had been following the IGC talks for the past year and a successful outcome to the negotiations was one of its top priorities.

But few are minimising the obstacles which remain.

Henderson put down an early marker by telling his colleagues he would rule out any merger of the Western European Union into the EU - a project dear to the hearts of ten member states - and stressing that the UK favoured intergovernmental cooperation on internal and external security issues.