NOVEMBER 25th: The bays our fifth presidency are fast drawing to a close. Many of the issues we highlighted at the outset are now coming to a head. The last few weeks of any presidency are crucial. Despite the hectic pace, this is the time for maximum effort to ensure a successful conclusion to our presidency. That is when a presidency's reputation is made or lost.
Today's meeting of EU Foreign Ministers is dominated by external relations issues and the Treaty revision negotiations. We begin by discussing the December World Trade Organisation conference meeting in Singapore. There are some different views among member states as to what needs to be done to develop further the global trading system initiated by the GATT agreement but, after lengthy discussion, we settle on a mandate for the Singapore meeting.
We discuss the situation in East Timor and authorise the Commission to develop proposals for projects supporting Timorese nongovernmental organisations. This reflects the Union's continuing commitment to the search for an acceptable settlement there. The external issues we discuss today - the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia and the crisis in eastern Zaire - illustrate the extent of the Union's commitments which have grown exponentially in recent years.
The afternoon is devoted to the Inter Governmental Conference. Our main subject is "flexibility". This is the notion that a number of countries within the EU should be able to co operate more closely in certain areas using the structures of the Union. Some countries see this as an essential tool in an enlarged Union. This is shaping up to be one of the core issues of these negotiations. We will not be able to resolve it in the short term, but common ground is beginning to emerge. We already have elements of flexibility in the Treaty, i.e. the UK has not undertaken the obligations of the Social Chapter and not all member states will necessarily enter Economic and Monetary Union at the same time. It will require careful planning to reconcile the views of those who favour flexibility with those who fear its effects on the Union's existing cohesion.
Afterwards, I meet the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Foreign Minister Milutinovic. We discuss his Government's decision to annul the recent local elections and the ensuing unrest there.
DECEMBER 4th:
The Bosnian Peace Implementation Council is meeting in London to review progress in the peace process there. Bosnia has been one of the major preoccupations of our presidency. Though far from settled, the situation there has improved in recent months. Perhaps against the odds, in July the deeply divided city of Mostar elected a local administration while the September national elections passed off successfully. The three member presidency has since become a reality even if many tensions and difficulties persist.
In Bosnia as in Rwanda, unpunished crimes committed in the courses of conflict stand in the way of reconciliation. At Lancaster House, I meet High Representative Carl Bildt to discuss what can be done to secure the early handing over of suspected war criminals.
On return to Dublin, I meet the British Labour Party's shadow foreign secretary, Robin Cook, who is in Ireland for a series of meetings with Labour Party colleagues on EU developments. At 8 p.m. I go to the Foreign Affairs' Conference Room where we have installed a video conference link to Brussels. I talk to our chief IGC negotiator, Noel Dorr, who has been in Brussels during the last few days doing the back breaking work of finalising the outline draft treaty we are to present to next week's European Council. We spend two hours working through this document paragraph by paragraph with Noel Dorr and his team. In the past, this exercise would have required a special journey to get us all in the same room!
DECEMBER 5th:
It has been a bad week for our domestic politics, with clouds of inchoate suspicion in the air. For the health of our democracy, these will have to be dispelled without delay. It is essential that all political parties co operate in this effort. Meanwhile, back on the European front, our IGC document is on the launching pad. It represents a major step forward in the IGC negotiations. This text is the product of a sustained effort over the entire period of the presidency. It represents a determined effort to bring together the various proposals put forward and we hope it will be accepted as a good basis for the remaining work of the conference.
The section aimed at strengthening freedom, justice and security throughout the Union is one of the centrepieces of our document.
Our idea is that EU citizens should be able to travel freely throughout the Union and that organised criminals and drug traffickers seeking to exploit the vulnerable in our societies should feel the full force of improved transnational co operation under EU auspices. Our proposals envisage more effective police co operation, involving Europol, and action on trafficking in persons and offences against children.
DECEMBER 6th:
The last Foreign Ministers' meeting of our presidency, the last chance to prepare next week's summit. Our IGC paper is being well received. We appear to have struck the right balance and maintained the level of ambition necessary for a satisfactory outcome to the negotiations. Our "upper end of realism" is evidently where most member states wish to be.