THE DUTCH draft treaty for Amsterdam, which was released last night, reflects an attempt to find a balance between conflicting aspirations. However, it leans to what the Irish representative to the Inter-Governmental Conference, Mr Noel Dorr, once called the "ambitious side of realism".
Its provisions on four or five key issues will certainly provide leaders with food for argument.
On the entitlement of member-states to commissioners, the Dutch suggest leaving the status quo and a commitment to convene a review conference after five new member-states join the Union - realistically not before well into the next decade.
As a quid pro quo to the larger states, after two new members join there will be a reweighting of votes in the Council of Ministers in favour of the larger countries.
The draft also contains a new significant increase in the powers of the President of the Commission to reshuffle the portfolios of his team.
Despite opt-out provisions, the British will insist on their veto on the use of so-called "flexibility" provisions - these allow groups of states to use the Union institutions for specific projects that do not have universal support.
A spokesman for Mr Santer in Brussels, Mr Klaus van der Paas, said that the text on enhanced economic co-ordination being worked on for the French by the Dutch presidency did not involve throwing "bags of money" at job creation.
The attempt was, he said, to use the experience of successful monetary co-ordination and supervision by the Union in the sphere of convergence of employment and labour market policies. They hoped "to stimulate convergence by all possible means", he said.
AFP adds: The German Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, last night contested an OECD prediction that Germany would fail to meet the criteria for participation in the European single currency from its inception in 1999.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said that Germany, France and Italy were all facing deficits of 3.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, rather than the 3.2 per cent Maastricht target.
