That really is the time-limit

Date: 03/04/1997

Deadlines are always good for concentrating the mind, but seven minutes is a bit tight for a detailed analysis of the Intergovernmental Conference.

Nevertheless, that was the limit imposed on Europe's foreign ministers' speaking time when they met in Rome last week - and Ireland's Dick Spring got a telling off for still talking when time was up.

Sweet revenge, perhaps, for current Council president Hans van Mierlo, who received a note from Spring at a meeting last December, as Ireland handed over the EU presidency to the Dutch, which read: “Dear Hans. Now all the problems are yours.”

But Spring did not take his reprimand meekly. He reminded Van Mierlo that as Ireland had not been present when the Treaty of Rome was signed exactly 40 years ago, it had a lot of catching up to do.

Why so little time? It was partly so that nobody would be late for the 40th birthday party which took the foreign ministers to Rome in the first place, but also because of the pressing need to discuss a local difficulty on Italy's doorstep - the Albanian crisis - which could soon become a crisis for the whole EU.

As one Union veteran who was in Rome for the signing in 1957 and was back again last week put it: “It all seemed less complicated 40 years ago.”