National elections disrupt IGC timetable

Date: 24/04/1997

By Rory Watson

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac's electoral gamble and mounting British Euroscepticism are threatening to undermine the Union's treaty negotiations and throw the carefully planned agenda for the EU's future expansion into confusion.

The degree to which European issues are now dominating the electoral stage in two of the Union's largest member states is acting as a brake on the Intergovernmental Conference and prompting growing fears that the talks will miss their mid-June deadline and run into October.

“There is no real political debate at the moment. There is a tendency to postpone important items. The problem is that the IGC representatives are receiving fewer instructions from national capitals and they prefer not to bother governments which are involved in electoral campaigns,” said one participant.

But despite the electoral tests in the UK on 1 May and in France on 25 May and 1 June - and the likelihood of an election in Ireland at the end of May - the Dutch presidency still insists a new EU treaty can be agreed within the next seven weeks.

It intends to present its revised draft text in mid-May for discussion by foreign ministers on 20 May and by Union leaders at an informal summit in Maastricht three days later.

“The Dutch presidency is still of the opinion that it must be possible to reach agreement, at least a political agreement, at the Amsterdam summit, even if the legal ends have to be tied up later,” insisted Dutch European Affairs Minister Michiel Patijn this week.

The knock-on effects of any delay, even for four months, would be considerable. It would set back the start of EU enlargement talks, delay crucial negotiations on the future financing of Union policies and enmesh ratification of the revised treaty in German elections and the selection next spring of the first members of the single currency.

“Because of these repercussions, the pressures to reach agreement by mid-June are immense,” said one official.

The chances of a successful outcome to the Amsterdam summit were further buffeted this week when European Commission President Jacques Santer became embroiled in the UK general election.

In a speech denouncing the spread of Euroscepticism, Santer attacked the “doom-merchants”, critics intent “on scoring cheap points by caricaturing our legislation and our institutions”, and those with their feet on the brake of EU progress. Although Santer did not specifically mention the UK, his remarks were pounced on by Conservative politicians, who argued that only they could adequately defend British interests. This has forced the Labour opposition to adopt a tougher stance towards the EU.

“Unwittingly, the outcome of the speech is that it will make it harder for whichever party wins the UK elections to agree a deal in Amsterdam,” said one official.