New EU affairs minister promises "fresh start"

BRITAIN's new European Affairs minister, Mr Doug Henderson, yesterday pledged to fellow EU members "to make a fresh start to Britain's relations with the rest of the EU and draw a line under the recent past". He said he hoped a new treaty could be agreed in Amsterdam in six weeks.

"Britain has come into the mainstream," one EU diplomat commented with evident relief.

Mr Henderson was in Brussels for a negotiating session of the treaty changing Inter Governmental Conference. He replaced the British ambassador, Sir Stephen Wall, as the British member of the group of foreign ministers' personal representatives.

Setting out in broad brush strokes the new British IGC position, he pledged to sign up to the Social Chapter as soon as possible.

The social protocol to the Maastricht treaty makes clear that the British opt out is not optional, but mandatory. Commission sources said they were urgently exploring the possibility of interim arrangements, as there are a number of pieces of proposed legislation in the pipeline: a directive on shifting the burden of proof in sexual harassment cases; part time workers' rights; and proposals for information and consultation of workers at national level.

Britain may be forced during its presidency in the first half of next year to hand over the chair of social affairs meetings if the ratification process is not completed by then.

On a number of matters of common concern with Ireland, Mr Henderson's speech will have pleased Iveagh House. He ruled out a merger between the EU and the Western European Union, favouring improved practical arrangements so that the WEU and the EU can work effectively alongside each other, "as separate institutions", a formulation that could have been written in Dublin.

He expressed reservations about "flexibility" provisions which would allow some member states to proceed ahead of others. These should not apply, he said, to the single market, and should be limited to the Irish "constructive abstention" formula in foreign policy.

Mr Henderson acknowledged that the British will have most difficulty reaching an accord in Justice and Home Affairs policy because of their insistence on retaining frontier controls. Here too, however, he suggested that Britain was prepared to see some flexibility provisions, but wanted "arrangements which will allow us to work together as 15 member states wherever possible".

This is almost certainly a hint at support for the Irish position of incorporating the Schengen Treaty's provisions in a new EU treaty but clearly within the framework of traditional EU decisionmaking.

Mr Henderson also confirmed that the British will agree to extending qualified majority voting in the fields of industrial, regional, and environmental policy and will support the inclusion of an employment chapter in the treaty.