EU leaders yesterday marked a milestone in the development of a citizens' Europe by proclaiming a Charter for Fundamental Rights. But Ireland has joined five other states in ensuring the new charter, drafted by representatives of member states, national parliaments and MEPs, will not even be mentioned in the EU Treaty.
The leaders yesterday cleared the decks of other EU business before settling down last night in a restricted dinner to work on the real business of the summit, treaty reforms in the Inter-Governmental Conference that will pave the way institutionally for enlargement.
In a three-hour discussion, they formally approved the setting up of a Food Safety Authority; confirmed that the costs of the BSE crisis will have to be met within current EU budget constraints; confirmed the fiscal package agreed by finance ministers last week and approved a series of uncontroversial papers on social and economic issues.
These range from a social agenda for the EU based on enhancing competitiveness through labour market flexibility, to measures in the area of maritime security and a declaration on the special place of sport in the Union.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, reminded leaders of the particular dependence of Irish rural communities on the export of 90 per cent of the beef they produce. Proposals on aid to farmers expected from the Commission would have to take account of such a reality, he said. And the leaders also pledged the EU to urgently relaunch the Kyoto climate talks following their failure last week.
During the day there was the emergence of the first signs of strategic movement by delegations on treaty reform issues. The Germans are understood to have indicated they have no problem with the French maintaining parity with them in votes in the Council of Ministers. The British backed a German proposal for setting 2004 as the date for the next Inter-Governmental Conference. And the Spanish hinted that they are willing to accept the deferred introduction of majority voting on Cohesion Fund allocation.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, even allowed his guard to slip slightly in admitting that Ireland might be willing to soften its stance on one-commissioner-per-memberstate in the light of the final outcome when "we will have to see where our interests lie in the context of an overall package". Such flexibility would not, however, be forthcoming on the veto on tax policy or on the other Irish concern, the possibility of majority voting on "social provision", the harmonisation of social dialogue in industry.
Last night the question was whether the French presidency would over dinner begin to "show a bit of leg" by hinting at concessions it might be willing to make. In particular, French insistence on maintaining its veto over the external representation of intellectual property issues in trade is seen as a major blockage to EU coherence in WTO negotiations.
While a broad consensus of member states is opposed to incorporating the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the EU treaties at this stage, a majority still appears keen to back a simple reference to it alongside the reference to the European Convention on Human Rights in Article 6 of the treaty. Yesterday Germany indicated its support for full incorporation.
But a group, led by the British, and consisting also of Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, is adamantly opposed even to a mention and have ensured it will not happen. The French have even taken the proposal off the table.
Irish sources say they are concerned that the incorporation might trigger a referendum requirement and they worry about what they see as creating a conflict of jurisdictions between the EU court in Luxembourg and the Strasbourg court (ECHR).
But the charter is strongly supported by human rights groups, trade unions and non-governmental social organisations, and yesterday the co-ordinator of the European Anti-Poverty Network (Ireland), Mr Robin Hanan, criticised the Government for its failure to debate the issue publicly.
The status of the charter is still disputed. The British Minister for European Affairs, Mr Keith Vaz, yesterday insisted that they have succeeded in ensuring the charter will "not be justiciable", that it will not be possible to sue on the basis of its provisions.
But lawyers insist that even the simple proclamation of the charter by heads of government will give it a standing as a reference point for courts determining human rights issues and that they will draw on it as a source of EU law.