Brussels: Italy's ambition to complete the Inter-Governmental Conference on a new constitution for Europe before Ireland takes over the presidency of the European Union provoked protests yesterday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
The Finnish Foreign Minister, Mr Erkki Tuomioja, launched an angry attack on Italy for wanting to open the IGC, the conference of national governments, as early as October 4th.
He accused Italy of rushing into the IGC without allowing sufficient time for domestic debate on the draft treaty prepared by the convention on the future of Europe, chaired by former French president Mr Valery Giscard d' Estaing.
The convention took longer over its work than originally foreseen and only completed its text on July 10th. Mr Giscard formally presented the final document to the Italian presidency just last Friday.
Mr Tuomioja pointed out that the EU had agreed as long ago as December 2001 that there should be a period of about six months between the end of the convention and the launch of the Inter-Governmental Conference.
He said the national parliaments were not being given time for debate before the conference began its work. He said that it would be up to the same national parliaments to ratify any treaty resulting from the IGC.
"This is not acceptable," he said.
Austria and Sweden supported the criticism and, from the countries which will join the EU, Poland and the Czech Republic also expressed concern.
Mr Tuomioja said the Italian ambition to complete the Inter-Governmental Conference by the end of the year was wrong. The only possible restriction on the end date was the admission of new states in May 2004.
Criticism of the start date was also accompanied by doubts about various aspects of the convention's draft. Mr Tuomioja, for instance, highlighted security and defence policy, the end to some national vetoes and the relations between the EU institutions.
He also said Mr Giscard should have no role in the IGC.
Germany, which is keen that the IGC should not unravel the work of the convention, fought back against Finland and Austria's concerns.
Although not all countries spoke during yesterday's debate, which was a preliminary discussion, several EU diplomats concluded from its tone that Italy's hopes of wrapping the IGC up quickly were unrealistic. They believe that the IGC will continue into 2004, when Ireland takes over the presidency of the EU's council of ministers.
Mr Dick Roche, Minister for European Affairs, said: "It has always been my view that this very fine treaty will be completed under the Irish presidency."
Speaking after the debate, he said that criticism of the October 4th start date had been "commonly held".
He described the work of the convention, of which he was a member, as "more successful than anybody could have hoped" but acknowledged that a period of reflection was still needed.
"People in the home administrations are now going through the document. There is still a lot of work to be done," he said.
Giving an indication that the Inter-Governmental Conference would be neither easy nor swift, he said he believed that several administrations would have problems with aspects of the draft treaty.
"It is fairly clear that there will be a significant number of issues raised, he said, highlighting security and defence policy, institutional issues, the make-up of the commission and justice and home affairs.