Italy: EU foreign ministers have entered a two-day "conclave" in the Italian city of Naples, hoping to break the deadlock in negotiations towards a new constitutional treaty, writes Denis Staunton in Naples
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said that the talks had gained a new momentum but there was little sign of movement on the key issues that remain to be resolved.
The meeting was overshadowed by the dispute in Brussels this week over the decision not to discipline France and Germany for breaching the Stability and Growth Pact. The Dutch deputy foreign minister, Mr Atzo Nicolai, told the meeting that European agreements must be better adhered to and that the constitutional treaty should contain guarantees that the rules would be obeyed by all member-states.
"The confidence of citizens in Europe and the maintenance of treaties has been seriously damaged," he said.
The Commission's representative, Mr Michel Barnier, said that the dispute highlighted the need for stronger instruments for economic governance in the EU. But Britain's foreign secretary, Mr Jack Straw, suggested that the decision was a welcome expression of the importance of tailoring EU rules to political and economic reality.
Spain's foreign minister, Ms Ana Palacio, criticised Italy's conduct of the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC), adding that the proposed amendments did nothing to address her country's concerns about institutional changes.
Mr Cowen welcomed proposed amendments to the text agreed at the Convention on the Future of Europe that take account of Ireland's common law tradition. But he said that more clarification was needed to ensure that the Government would retain its veto over measures that could affect the Irish legal system in a fundamental way.
"You simply cannot overlook the fact that there are different legal systems and traditions which are important to citizens and states in terms of the protections that have been built up in jurisprudence over the years in our own national legal frameworks. Procedural laws, trial laws - all of these are very important and fundamental to the character of the legal systems we have drawn up," he said.
Mr Cowen told the meeting that Ireland continued to resist any move away from unanimity on all tax matters, even if issues of tax fraud and tax evasion were the only ones to be decided by qualified majority.
"We have made particular choices about personal and corporation tax in Ireland and we strongly believe that those choices have helped to drive our economic success, which has benefited our society as a whole.
"We are as committed as anyone else to fighting tax fraud and evasion and we've already been doing so. We just make the point that this doesn't need a qualified majority procedure for the EU to do it," he said.
Ireland was supported in its position on tax by Britain, Luxembourg and Estonia but other countries, including Germany said that it was important for them that more progress should be made in combating tax fraud.
While the ministers were meeting, news emerged of an agreement between Britain, France and Germany of a common position on EU defence. The French newspaper Le Monde said the accord, clinched by senior aides at a meeting in Berlin late on Wednesday, envisaged expanding the existing EU military staff of 130 officers in Brussels to give it operational planning capabilities.
The three governments declined to outline details of the plan until Britain had briefed a "key ally" on its contents.
Among the more controversial changes proposed by the Italian Presidency is a move towards obliging EU member-states to defend each other in the event of armed attack.
The proposed amendment reads: "If a member-sttate is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member- states shall give it aid and assistance by all the means in their power, military or other, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Commitments and co-operation in this area shall be consistent with commitments under NATO, which, for those States which are members of it, remains the foundation of their collective defence."
Mr Cowen recalled that the Government was constitutionally bound to hold a referendum before entering any military alliance.
"There is no question of us being in a position to join up to common defence without the agreement of the people. That goes without saying," he said.