IRELAND: The Swedish Prime Minister said yesterday that agreement on an EU constitutional treaty was possible during Ireland's EU presidency.
Speaking to reporters at Government Buildings after a meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, Mr Göran Persson said that while the chances of a deal were better towards the end of 2004 during the Dutch presidency, he did not rule out agreement during Ireland's term.
The Taoiseach met Mr Persson as part of a round of meetings with EU leaders to ascertain whether there is a genuine prospect of reaching agreement. Next week he will meet two of the key players, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, in Madrid on Monday and the Polish Prime Minister, Mr Leszek Miller, in Dublin on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, met the Spanish Foreign Minister, Ms Ana Palacio, in Dublin in advance of an informal EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday which will discuss the prospect for agreement. With a Spanish general election scheduled for March 14th, Mr Cowen was trying to find out if the outgoing government had any room for manoeuvre.
The dispute between Poland and Spain on one side and France and Germany on the other over their relative voting weights in the European Council was the main cause of the failure at the Brussels summit in December to agree the constitutional treaty.
Mr Ahern repeated yesterday that whether an agreement could be reached under the Irish presidency depended in large part on whether sufficient political will existed.
"If a real prospect of agreement emerges we will move immediately to seize the opportunity," he said.
He wanted to make "the fullest possible report" to the March European Council, which would then decide whether there was sufficient consensus to make a push for a deal worthwhile.
Mr Persson said he wanted the Irish presidency to be a success because this was a critical period for the European Union. There was an ambition to conclude the negotiations in 2004, "and the chances to do so are a little bit better in the end of the year that in the beginning."
The main outstanding issue of concern for Sweden was the Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy, he went on. "Not least in regard to common defence, our tradition of standing outside military alliances is always an issue for us ... " Mr Persson said.