The objectives set by the Government for Saturday's informal European Council in Dublin were straightforward and clear cut to elicit the views of other government leaders on the timetable and substantive agenda for negotiations to change the EU treaties and to discuss pressing international issues. By agreeing to keep to the deadline of mid 1997 and to increase the momentum of the talks this summit meeting has fulfilled its purpose, despite a degree of scepticism as to whether it was necessary at this time. The decision to become more involved in the Middle East peace process is a further signal that they want the EU to become a more effective force on the international stage.
The project of adapting and developing the EU to cater for enlargement after the end of the Cold War is ambitious and far reaching. It breaks down into several major components, including bringing structures closer to the citizen, developing a common foreign and security policy and making the Union's decision making more effective.
Other decisions, on economic and monetary union, appropriate budgetary provision, and the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, must be made in the next four to six years. They will each command detailed attention and have profound implications for the future of Europe and all its nations and citizens. This Inter Governmental Conference deals with only some of these issues, but ones that are crucial to the success of most of the others. Hence the urgency of establishing a timetable to ensure that the other matters are not crowded out but which can nonetheless match achievement to ambition.
Saturday's meetings, conducted by Mr Bruton and Mr Spring, have gone some way to clarify the way ahead for the EU. They must be seen as part of a process, a continuum, between now and the December Council, to which the Irish EU Presidency will present a draft treaty with clearly identified alternatives for decision. The next two months will tell whether the momentum and ambition promised yesterday can indeed be maintained. Part of the purpose of the meeting was to convince government leaders that their respective administrations should concentrate on the issues in a much more focused manner.
Whether they have done so will only gradually become apparent. At least it looks now as if the uncertainty of British participation is a less pressing issue than many feared. This may change if the Germans and French manage to coordinate their positions more effectively. In any case the final stage of negotiation, involving trade offs and compromises, will come under the Dutch EU Presidency in the first six months of next year, if the timetable is adhered to.
A strong indication of the desire that the Union should adopt a more pronounced international role was found in the Council's decisions to appoint a special envoy to the Middle East, to dispatch Mr Spring immediately to the talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians and to highlight the extent of the aid which flows from the EU to the peace process. These initiatives are well founded on Europe's fundamental interests in a stable and peaceful Middle East and on a growing realisation that they are best protected by a more united approach.