INTER-GOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE: MINISTERS FAIL TO MAKE BREAKTHROUGH.

Apart from Hubert Vedrine, eight Foreign Affairs Ministers, including Joschka Fischer, Josep Pique, Brian Cowen and Erkki Tuomioja, plus five Ministers of State or State Secretaries for European Affairs, including Keith Vaz, took part in the dinner ahead of the conclave. The sole Member State absent in ministerial terms was the Netherlands. The atmosphere was somewhat overshadowed by the revival of the language-related squabble incited by Mr Fischer, joined by Mr Pique, complaining about the lack of any German and Spanish translation facilities. The meal was intended to minimise the number of participants (and was held in the form of a restricted session) where the Ministerial conclave proper was attended by about 80 people, each delegation having three members in addition to a minister, to which were added officials from the Council and Commission General Secretariats. As a rule, a conclave is staged ahead of a EU Summit to pave the wage for the final bargaining sessions between EU leaders. This will be case for the forthcoming event of the same type, on 8 October, ahead of the EU Summit in Biarritz. However, on 24 July, pressure on the Member States was insufficient to create the hoped-for political alchemy. So in anticipation of the conclaves planned for 5 November and 3 December, the Presidency is toying with the idea of finding another way of organising the proceedings. There could be a cut in the size of the delegations and the subject matter of the talks could have less to do with the more technical negotiations of the preparatory group or IGC Ministerial sessions held on the sidelines of General Affairs Councils.Whilst the conclave failed to lead to any breakthrough, it did succeed in confirming, presumably on a permanent basis, one or two trends reported in recent months. As for the size and composition of the...