Luxembourg, 26/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Monday the President of the Council Brian Cowen presented his colleagues with the calendar of the Irish presidency on the re-opening of the Intergovernmental Conference for adopting a Constitutional treaty at the European Council in June. A ministerial meeting will take place on 17 May and in the morning of the 18th in a backdrop to the General Affairs Council. If needed, a second IGC meeting could be arranged at a ministerial level for 24 May, with the objective of obtaining a realistic package for the June summit which would only leave two or three questions pending.
On the subject of ministers' future work, Cowen distinguished between institutional issues and ways for calculating qualified majority voting and the scope of qualified majority voting and the issues raised by some delegations on the post-Naples package and aspects of this package which will have to be confirmed.
An initial meeting of the contact group is expected on 4 May for preparing the ministerial meeting.
During a brief debate, the British minister for foreign affairs Jack Straw told his colleagues that Tony Blair's decision to submit the constitution to a referendum strengthened the determination of the British government to reach a conclusion. Bernard Bot from the Netherlands regretted that they could not conclude before the European elections.
The French foreign affairs minister, Michel Barnier informed the press that "we need this constitution". The latter also expressed his hope that they could still succeed before the elections in giving a "very strong signal that we are here and the Union is working". Barnier said that France had a "constructive attitude" but also had some demands and did not want any backtracking on Naples. Michel Barnier said that they had to keep to the draft of Naples but clarify or improve some of the points if possible. These improvements he said had to focus on the social dimension, pointing out that Jacques Chirac wanted to put "the human dimension back at the heart of the European project". Improvements sought by France are: the institutionalisation of the social summit; the introduction of the clause on social dialogue proposed by Italy; qualified majority voting for social benefits and migrant workers; qualified majority for public health.