Lisbon, 07/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - In an interview granted to a small group of journalists on Thursday, the Portuguese Foreign Minister and President-in-Office of the Council since 1 January, Jaime Gama spoke about the different aspects of the programme of the Portuguese Presidency and provided the following details:
- Intergovernmental conference. "The idea is to begin the IGC at the General Affairs Council in February", said Mr. Gama, stipulating that, meanwhile, he was to write to his colleagues "to clarify certain organisational points, the mandate and the agenda". Regarding the conduct of negotiations, there are there are three options on the table: i) participation, politically, of one member of the Council (per Member State, which, "for some of them, does not necessarily mean the Foreign Minister"); ii) preparation of work, for each Member State, "by a person appointed by their government", the latter may being "the Permanent Representative, the director General (of the Foreign Ministry: Ed.) or someone else for certain Member States); iii) "some now pleading in favour of a third solution", which would see the Permanent Representative being instructed undertake the technical preparations, and the Foreign Ministers the political decisions, with the Ministers of State for European affairs acting between the two. "The General Affairs Council will discuss the problem in depth to decide between these options before the IGC, said Mr. Gama.
Regarding the magnitude of the reforms to decide and the timetable to respect in anticipation of enlargement, the Portuguese Foreign Minister was more cautious than was the Minister of State for European Affairs, Francisco Seixas da Costa (see yesterday's EUROPE, pp.3/4). ""We have a limited brief to the triangle (the three leftovers from Amsterdam: Ed.), but we could add other elements" he said. From this point of view, the Portuguese Presidency will strive to "organise a rational debate", in view of: a) "defining options for precise solutions" regarding the leftovers, ie, issues which the Fifteen have already "studied everything" (in view of the Amsterdam rendez-vous) and of which they know "all the options by heart"; b) "underpinning some paths of consensus for subjects that could be added" to the negotiations. Mr. Gama is nevertheless of the opinion that work on these other subjects will not go far as to substance and that "it will not be a question of a great review of the Treaty", but of a "timely review". According to him, resumption of work on enhanced cooperation is premature in the sense that, at that level, "there has been no project since Amsterdam" ("and anyway", he added, "one cannot impose this discussion from the outside").
- Security and defence dimension. Portugal will organise an informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers, as did Austria in its Presidency. This meeting will take place "in the first quarter", but anyway not on the fringe of the informal Gymnich-type meeting to which Ministers for Foreign Affairs will be convened. Furthermore, "there will be a gradual participation of Defence Ministers in General Affairs Councils at specific moments", i.e. when documents intended for the European Council of June are to be discussed. "We shall test the involvement of Defence Ministers", said Mr. Seixas da Costa, stipulating: "We believe that we should work more closely with them"". Regarding the document to be submitted to the Heads of State or Government, Mr. Gama said that it would "attempt to draw up a more articulated concept, to submit certain types of regulations for relations between the EU and WEU, on the one hand, and the EU and NATO, on the other". The Presidency will also strive to "accelerate the setting up of the interim organs". Regarding this issue as a whole, "we are beginning to work with Mr. Solana", Mr. Gama added, stating that contacts would be made with the United States and Canada, Norway, the EU's neutral countries (Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden), the candidate countries ("especially Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic", members of NATO) and Turkey. In this exercise, the Presidency will have "one imperative", Mr. Seixas da Costa, i.e., "the need that the model as a whole should be compatible with commitments to NATO". He then stipulated: "But we must at the same time take account of the serious concerns that exist in our traditionally neutral countries".
- Organisation of Council work. "We are on the eve of the inauguration of a new type of Presidency", Mr. Gama explained, stating that he would be going to Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece and Germany in the company of Mr. Solana to discuss the subject. "We are trying to have better coordination to render
the work of the General Affairs Council more effective" (by, among other things, "a reduction of people attending the meetings"), he added, stipulating that Solana and de Boisseau had proceeded with a "more practical assessment" of the ideas contained in the Trumpf-Piris Report. Finally, Jaime Gama said that the Presidency would be presenting the Committee of Permanent Representatives ideas next week to coordinate Community issues and those relating to external policy more effectively.
- Russia/Chechnya. The Portuguese Presidency "has not been instructed to prepare sanctions, but a review of the Common Strategy", said Mr. Gama, recalling that, for its part, the Commission was to "prepare a new allocation of funds in the context of cooperation between the EU and Russia". "That's what we shall do", he added, stipulating that the Fifteen would try to "articulate their efforts" with the Norwegian Presidency of the OSCE.
- Africa. "It's time to make a comprehensive proposal for a partnership strategy with Africa", like those the EU has sealed with Latin America (Andean Pact, Mercosur) and Asia (Asean, Asem). Mr. Gama stipulated that, "no doubt in mid-January", he was waiting for a response on the African side on the possibility of organising an EU-Africa Summit.
