Ahern makes light of latest concessions on EU treaty
Sunday June 24 2007
THE Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, yesterday made light of claims by his European counterparts that they had seriously changed the constitutional treaty he negotiated in 2004.
He admitted the marathon talks had been about settling Polish fears and enabling the British, French, Dutch and Danish governments to avoid referendums.
Ireland will hold its referendum on the new treaty next year, he said.
Mr Ahern bemoaned the fact that so many of his European counterparts were trained lawyers and said he disliked the inelegance of the new text. "When you get that many lawyers in a room it gets complex," he said.
"I think the way I left this three years ago was far better. I'm not going to change my mind on that and I think all the changes that we've made are all changes for the worse but thankfully they haven't changed the substance - 90 per cent of it is still there."
The new draft document replaces the original proposed constitution and "tidies up" 50 years of European pacts from the original Treaty of Rome onwards.
Mr Ahern made light of the concessions obtained by Britain and France.
The UK obtained opt-outs from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and from being bound by the decisions of EU Justice Ministers and also got the title EU Foreign Minister dropped.
France got a commitment to "undistorted competition" dropped from the text.
On the British demand that the title Foreign Minister be dropped, Mr Ahern said: "It's the original job as proposed but they just put on this long title - High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and also vice President of the Commission.
"It's the same job - it's to avoid the rest of the world not having an easy contact point [for the EU] - it's still going to be the same position," he said.
He said several hours had been spent arguing about the European flag and anthem - opposed by Britain. "Will anybody in Europe take notice of that, will anyone know or will anyone care two damns that Article Eight is out? The next time the European anthem is played, will people not show the same respect to the flag?"
The Taoiseach said he understood why Poland fought as bitterly as it did to retain the current voting system for the next 10 years - until autumn 2017.
Poland's prime minister Jaroslaw Kacszinski and his twin brother President Lech Kacszinski repeatedly taunted Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel abouther country's Nazi pastand blamed it for all theirmisfortunes.
Mr Ahern said: "It's not even about [weighted] votes. I was sitting opposite the [Polish] president - it's about history, it's about the war, it's about how they're treated, it's about their neighbours, it's about respect. You know, it's all of these things," he said.
Meanwhile, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, held private talks with Pope Benedict yesterday, stoking speculation that he might convert to Catholicism after he steps down this week.
Blair brought a gift of original photographs of John Henry Newman, the 19th-Century Anglican leader who was one of Britain's most illustrious converts to Catholicism, and later a cardinal.
On the final leg of his farewell world tour, Mr Blair spoke privately with the Pope for 25 minutes in the pontiff's study and the talks were then enlarged to include Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic church in England.
A Vatican statement made no reference to the issue of possible conversion of Mr Blair, who is Anglican. Mr Blair's wife, Cherie, and their four children are Catholics.
