Ministers cautious on idea of EU "flexibility"

CAUTION was the watchword yesterday when EU Foreign Ministers opened the key debate on how to provide for different speeds of integration in the EU's treaty. Broad support for the concept is tempered with a sense among a number of countries that the devil may be in the detail.

But the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Hans van Mierlo, expressed confidence after the meeting that the discussion had been "positive" and reflected "considerable room for manoeuvre" on the issue.

The debate on "flexibility", one of the most controversial aspects of treaty reform in the Inter Governmental Conference, is seen by some as a means of circumventing the gridlock caused by unanimity voting. Others see in it dangers of creating a destabilising process that could undermine the cohesion of the Union.

The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, said that Ireland was open to proposals for increased flexibility or what he preferred to call "differentiated integration". Any changes, however, had to contribute both to the coherence and effectiveness of the Union, but also to the integration process. He urged those making the case for increased flexibility to give practical examples of where they would see it applying.

Ministers also heard a report from the EU special representative in the Middle East, the former Spanish ambassador, Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos. Mr Moratinos told journalists of his optimism that Israel's agreement on redeployment in Hebron marked a real breakthrough in terms of the government's commitment to the full terms of the Madrid peace accord

In response to questions on the EU role in the process, Mr Moratinos said that the Union had now been accepted as a participant in both the economic and political processes.

Although he would not be drawn on the contents of the EU's letter of assurance to the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, diplomats said the letter pledges the Union's continued commitment to the economic reconstruction of Palestinian areas. It also says the Union will maintain full diplomatic pressure on all parties to ensure that political undertakings are honoured.

To emphasise that they are marching in step on European integration the French and German Foreign Ministers held a joint press conference here yesterday. But, apart from a reiteration by Mr Klaus Kinkel that both countries want "to work in tandem and he the motor of European integration" and an insistence on the importance of several month old joint proposals on flexibility, they had little to say.

The French Minister, Mr de Charette, did, however, volunteer his disapproval of a letter which appeared recently in the Herald Tribune comparing current German treatment of the Scientology sect to the treatment by the Nazis of the Jews. Such comparisons were completely unjustified, he said.