Brussels, 06/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - After the technical "Focal Points" meeting in Dublin on Tuesday, where the Irish Presidency presented its working document ahead of the relaunch of the IGC (see EUROPE of 5 May, p.8),the Presidency spokesperson voiced hopes on Thursday that the ministerial meeting of 17/18 May would end with an agreement of principle on a great many technical subjects contained within this document. The technical meeting was "positive" in that "most of the subjects [in the document] will not be reopened, and that the Presidency has had the assurance that there will be no new, unexpected requests at the end of negotiations, said the spokesperson.
On 17/18 May, the Foreign Ministers will also hold an exploratory debate- possibly on the basis of formal Presidency proposals- on the main political issues outstanding, such as the scope for qualified majority voting, the definition of qualified majority and the composition of the Commission. If necessary, the Irish Presidency is prepared to hold another ministerial meeting on 24 May. In the meantime, the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern is continuing his "tour of capitals": on Wednesday, he was in Sweden (where he said that it would be unlikely that the IGC could be concluded before 17 June, thus not until after the European elections), before heading to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Next week (12/14 May), Mr Ahern is expected in Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Spain and Portugal. On 19/20 May, he travels to Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, ending his marathon between 2 and 4 June in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, German, Luxembourg and Denmark.
The European Commission will debate the IGC this Friday, at the first official meeting of the college enlarged to 30 members. Mr Vitorino will report back on the results of the Dublin meeting, and on the prospects for progress on 17 and 18 May. In the Commission, it is felt that the main bulk of the technical work has been done, but that there is still some "political work" to be done on the main "sensitive" issues: definition and scope of qualified majority, composition of the Commission, number of seats in the European Parliament, spiritual or Christian reference in the preamble to the Treaty. None of these delicate issues was raised at the Dublin meeting, underlines the Commission, as it is up to the Ministers (or the Heads of State and Government) to tackle them. Nor was the eventuality of a Member State being unable to ratify the Treaty, in the event of a negative referendum result, discussed at Dublin. However, languages were discussed, as the Spanish delegation presented its partners with a document calling for other languages used in the EU to be awarded the same status as is currently enjoyed by the Irish language, Gaelic. Under the Spanish proposal, it would be up to each Member State to designate (or not) the language or languages which could enjoy this status. In practical terms, this would mean that the future Treaty would be translated into these languages, and that citizens could address the European institutions in them (Spain would like to ensure that the Treaty is translated into its regional languages, such as Catalan and Basque). There has not been a debate on this as yet, and the Commission has said that it is "neutral" (as it feels that this is up to the Member States).
Several aspects of the current draft still of concern to the Commission
The Commission indicated on Thursday that it is "very keen on" several aspects of the draft text drawn up by the European Convention, notably: the bridging clause to go from unanimity to qualified majority, including in reinforced co-operation; -qualified majority for that adoption of the financial perspectives as of 2014, "although certain Member States want to keep unanimity", as per the current text; -the concern that the "energy clause" (on the national character of the management of energy supply) may be worded in such a way as to contest the acquis on the internal energy market; -a more flexible procedure for the revision of part III of the Treaty (adapting policies without going via IGC procedures).