The European Council in Brussels started very well yesterday with its task of completing negotiations on the EU constitutional treaty when the summit ends today. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, gave an upbeat report on the response to the Irish presidency's compromise proposals. There was a sense of urgency and a common focus on getting the business completed after the discontent registered by voters in last week's Euro elections.
A similar imperative ran through last night's talks on who should succeed Mr Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission. The person chosen faces a daunting task of steering the Commission during the next five years, choosing a team capable of giving leadership to an enlarged European Union and safeguarding the Commission's distinctive role as the sole initiator of legislation and protecting the general European interest. Over this period a new budget will be negotiated and the EU's growing political and economic role in world affairs consolidated. Mr Ahern and his team deserve congratulations for the professional way they have narrowed down the issues left outstanding when negotiations on the treaty broke down last December, to the point where they are widely expected to be resolved today. He realised early on that a dogged, incremental approach would be necessary. While it was important not to raise expectations of success the Irish presidency would be blamed if it did not do the basic groundwork of explaining compromises and avoiding unnecessary surprises along the way. As Mr Ahern put it yesterday this effort reduced the number of outstanding issues from 67 to the smaller numbers set out in the recent detailed compromise proposals. Majority voting, representation on the Commission and the European Parliament, co-ordination of economic policy, admission to the eurozone and rules for the Stability and Growth pact are the outstanding concerns - all of them quite capable of being resolved with goodwill.
Mr Ahern emphasised that for political leaders it is much easier to explain a constitutional treaty to voters than the series of more technical treaties preceding this one, which it consolidates, rationalises and simplifies. This is an important point.
It is a major achievement to have brought two and a half years of bargaining on a constitutional document to govern the European Union to a conclusion. It sets out the basic values and objectives on which the EU is based, clarifies its competences in relation to the member-states, adds some new powers and provides a systematic cross-referencing between general principles and the detailed treaty-based clauses which must govern relations between nation-states engaged in an unprecedented exercise of sharing and pooling sovereignty. From the political point of view it should be more attractive to sell such clarification to electorates in the 25 EU member-states. This puts a more positive gloss on ratifying the treaty, assuming it is concluded at this summit.