Denis Staunton
in Brussels
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has stepped up pressure for an early agreement on the EU's constitutional treaty by scheduling a lunchtime discussion on the issue for EU foreign ministers in Brussels next Monday.
The discussion, which comes just over a month after the collapse of the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) in Brussels, will also involve representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the three candidate countries, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.
Mr Cowen told the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee in Brussels yesterday that, although bilateral meetings were crucial to finding agreement, it was important to remember that the IGC was a collective process.
"It will not be a formal meeting of the IGC. There will be no papers and I do not intend to draw any conclusions. But it will be an important signal that the work continues. It will give us an opportunity to exchange views about the best way to proceed," he said.
Mr Cowen acknowledged that finding agreement would be difficult but he warned that the task would not become easier. Echoing the Taoiseach's promise to spare no effort to find agreement, Mr Cowen said that the Government would seek, if possible, to table a compromise proposal at the EU summit in March.
"Putting proposals at the March summit will be the optimum position for us," he said.
Responding to interventions from MEPs, the Minister cautioned against pointing the finger of blame at any country for last December's failure. He urged all member-states to show a willingness to compromise, without which no agreement would be possible.
"Ireland can encourage progress, we can build mutual understanding, we can try to identify common ground. However, we cannot compel agreement, in the absence of the shared political will to achieve it.
"There is an obligation on everyone to think not only of their own interests but of the collective interest of the Union as a whole," he said.
Mr Cowen rejected calls for a two-speed Europe.
His warning was echoed yesterday by the leaders of two of the EU's smaller member-states, Denmark's Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Portugal's Mr Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.
Mr Rasmussen said unity had always been at the heart of the EU's success.
"A multi-speed Europe would go against the whole idea behind enlargement: to create a unified Europe inside the EU," he said.
Mr Barroso said that countries had a right to meet in whatever formations they chose, but warned: "The idea that two, three, four or five countries get together to cook up the meal to serve for the others to eat would be bad for Europe."