It is clear from the seminal speech by Mr Cowen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, last Wednesday that the tremendous potential importance for EU member-states of what is currently happening at the European Convention in Brussels is now fully understood here, and is at last being given the priority it deserves by our Government, writes Garret Fitzgerald
For far too long there prevailed a naïve belief that any ideas about the future of Europe emerging at this convention that were not to the liking of our Government could be scotched at aInter-Governmental Conference. However, it is now accepted that from this convention a consensus is likely to emerge on most of the matters its members, including representatives of 25 governments, are reviewing, and that a subsequent Inter-Governmental Conference is most unlikely to overturn such a consensus.
Since Minister of State Mr Dick Roche has replaced Mr Ray MacSharry as Government representative, there have been regular meetings between the three Irish delegates - the Minister himself, Mr John Bruton and Mr Proinsias de Rossa - and their three alternates, Mr Bobbie McDonagh of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Pat Carey, and Mr John Gormley.
Because so much is going on all the time at the convention, these Irish delegation meetings now provide a valuable opportunity for a very useful exchanges of information about what is happening in the convention's working groups and other networking meetings. Mr Bruton, who is a very active and energetic member of the convention's presidium, (one of the few who has challenged on several occasions the authoritarian chairman, former French president Mr Giscard d'Estaing), has most successfully chaired its Justice and Home Affairs Working Group, securing, against the odds, an agreed report on a very controversial policy area. His report was discussed last Tuesday at an exceptionally interesting meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence, and Women's Rights, which, although the Dáil was not sitting on that day, nevertheless failed to attract the attendance of a parliamentary or political correspondent from a daily newspaper. I believe that Stephen Collins, a serious journalist from our most serious Sunday paper, the Tribune, was there.
Mr Bruton has also submitted a paper to the plenary session of the convention proposing that in future the President of the Commission be elected by the people of Europe so as to give him or her the authority that would come from having a democratic mandate.This proposal is opposed by the British, and probably also by other large states, which would like to enhance their influence by increasing instead the role of the Council of Ministers.
Last Tuesday, Mr Roche counter-proposed that the President of the Commission be elected by an electoral college which would comprise, on a basis of numerical equality, national parliamentarians and the members of the European Parliament - rather than, as others have suggested, by MEPs alone. On Wednesday, the Danish Foreign Minister endorsed this Irish proposal
Networking meetings at the convention include those of the European political groups - Christian Democratic, Socialist, and Green - with which Irish parties are affiliated.
This is an area of European activity in respect of which, because of the absence of Fianna Fáil from any major European political group, the Minister of State would be at a disadvantage but for the exchanges of information which take place when the Irish delegates meet. These networking meetings also include a number of other informal groupings which cut across party and national lines.
One of these is the Friends of the Community Group, comprising representatives of most smaller member-states, and is about to be joined by delegates from the applicant states.
Another informal group is the Like-Minded Group, which involves Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Portugal. And a third is the National Governments Group. Mr Roche attends all three.
In the External Relations Working Group the Minister has drawn attention to its initial failure to give any priority to Third World issues, and, despite earlier Irish Government reticence about some social issues, he has also been an active and positive member of the late-established Social Affairs Group.
Finally, an initiative of his has led to the submission of an Irish/Swedish paper on good governance and the need to highlight the work of the Community Ombudsman.
For his part Mr de Rossa has brought together representatives of the neutral countries - Ireland, Austria, Finland, and Sweden - to discuss defence matters, and is also involved in a National Parliamentarians Group, which, on his proposal, has incorporated the idea of national parliaments having Europe weeks a couple of times each year.
The Minister's alternate, Mr Bobbie McDonagh, has been successful in clearing away some earlier Irish problems about the Charter of Human Rights, which was adopted as a political but not legally-binding document at the Nice European Council several years ago, and has been very active in the External Action Working Group.
Mr Pat Carey has been actively involved in the Economic Affairs Working Group, which, however, failed to reach a consensus because of delicate issues such as tax harmonisation, and is also involved in the Justice and Home Affairs Working Group, where he was given the difficult task of representing some of Mr Michael McDowell's negative views.
For his part, Mr Gormley has been a very active and constructive member of the Defence Working Group.
Other Irish people actively engaged as alternates are Mr John Cushnahan, representing the Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, and Mr David O'Sullivan, secretary-general of the Commission.
Mr Rory Montgomery, of Foreign Affairs, has also been assisting the Minister of State. John Bruton has the assistance of Ms Katherine Meenan, who was my parliamentary and European aide when I was Taoiseach, and who assisted former foreign minister Mr Jim Dooge in 1985-86 when he chaired the group of representatives of heads of government that successfully prepared the way for the Single European Act. And Mr de Rossa is assisted by Mr Tony Brown, a long-time Labour Party activist and European expert.
However, it required the intervention of the Taoiseach to overcome opposition by the Minister for Finance to the remuneration of these two aides, and he is still blocking their presence at meetings attended by their principals - a barrier to active Irish participation.