Official Report 234KB pdf
The next item on the agenda is the update on the intergovernmental conference. We agreed in the past to have regular updates. Given that the IGC on the new constitution is somewhat in abeyance, I suggest that we do not have this item on every agenda from now on, unless there are developments. Circumstances have changed. Are there any comments on the update?
Yes—reschedule it for 12 months' time.
I am impressed; I thought that you were going to say "12 years' time".
Okay then.
The meeting with the Irish ambassador will give us a chance to explore the paper that the Irish will present to the spring European Council. There are clearly contrary approaches. On the one hand, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, want to get ahead and make progress, fearing that the whole thing will unravel if they do not. On the other hand, Giscard d'Estaing fears that going ahead quickly will lead to things unravelling. Somehow, those contrary viewpoints have to be reconciled.
There are three crucial things. The first is the elections in Spain—in March or May, I cannot recall—and the elections in Poland in October. Those elections could have a bearing on later progress. Secondly, there is the cohesion report. If the Commission identifies a budget ceiling of 1 per cent or 1.2 per cent and adds in objective 2 funding with menus and priorities and so on, some eastern European countries may be a little bit more flexible than they have been. A third crucial thing is the European Parliament elections. Those three things will dramatically change the landscape, although I could be wrong. I see that Phil Gallie is looking glummer than he was a minute ago.
Not at all.
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