Ireland hopes to end EU impasse during presidency

[papau]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3730783/ Ireland hopes to end EU impasse during presidency
By Kevin Smith

December 16, 2003 - Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern held out hope on Tuesday that the deadlock on a new European Union constitution could be broken during Ireland's six-month EU presidency which starts in January.

Ireland faces a tough challenge in trying to resolve a row over voting rights which led to the collapse of a weekend summit in Brussels, blocking a treaty aimed at preparing the EU to take in 10 new members in May.

"I am certainly not going to promise the Inter-Governmental Conference (on the constitution) will finish in our presidency. But, equally, it would be premature to conclude it will not," Ahern told the Irish parliament.<snip>

Earlier on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in Dublin for talks with the government, said enlargement of the bloc to 25 members could go ahead successfully without the charter.

[NV1962]

1. Thanks for that link, but...

Unfortunately, that Reuters article is about as clear as mud. Neither the "big" news agencies (AP, Reuters) nor their "international pop news" customers, such as MSNBC, are a decent source for clarification of the complex interrelationship of issues in the EU constitutional debate.

That wasn't necessarily meant as a slam against AP/Reuters; it's just that their more superficial "snappy international news" outlets (such as MSNBC) aren't interested in or designed to provide necessary background info, necessary in complex dossiers such as the EU constitutional question.

The article is hardly informative beyond "it's a sticky situation but there's moderate optimism about some compromise over the next six months." That platitude aside, I think it's overly optimistic because I hardly think an effective compromise can take place at all within the next twelve months.

So, thanks for that article papau - but I'd recommend perusing the the Guardian's special here, instead.

Brief personal on-topic assessment: I think France's eagerness to move forward in the EU integration process faster, deeper and further is insufficiently acknowledged in this issue. Chirac has repeatedly hinted at creating a formalized 2-speed EU, an idea that has discreet and moderate backing from Schroeder, which would leave euroskeptical Britain riding in the slow car.

That's on top of the issue of finding / implementing "checks and balances" among big (populous) and small EU members. The problem here is that there's no equivalent to the Senate (yet) in the EU institutional make-up, which would serve to give states equal votes (to benefit small countries) next to the proportional European Parliament / Council votes.

However, as long as it's essentially national government leaders who make the decisions and set the agenda in the EU (instead of directly elected EU representatives, senators and commissioners) there'll be ample room for accusations of "pork" and "petty politics."

There's much more going on in the EU constitutional debate than is suggested by that article, namely an opposition among "the awkward squad" (i.e.: Poland and Spain) and the "sensible leaders" (i.e.: Blair, Chirac, Schroeder.)