THE most intriguing sight of all at the European Union summit in Amsterdam last week was that of Tony Blair, British prime minister, racing on a bike down a canal side street, followed by Dutch prime minister Wim Kok. President Jacques Chirac of France and Germany's Chancellor Helmut Kohl chose to walk instead. It was an ironic commentary on what actually transpired at the summit. Britain, till now dithering about how much it should integrate with the rest of the European Union, nodded its approval to most issues; but France and Germany bickered over key areas and reached a fragile political compromise, only just managing to keep the EU's common currency project on the rails.
Balancing French demands that the EU make jobs and growth its priority and German insistence for continued fiscal discipline, European leaders agreed "to give a new impulse for keeping employment at the top of the EU's political agenda". France and Germany have in the past always been keen to be in Europe's fast lane, eager to push for closer ties between the EU's 15 member states, a common foreign and defence policy, a single European currency. All these plans were inspired by the Franco-German alliance previously at the heart of Europe and virtually all of them had been watered down by successive Conservative governments in Britain in the last 17 years.
The bikes incidentally were given to the 13 prime ministers and two presidents by Amsterdam's mayor While the leaders may have been able to get on their bikes, people who work in the area around the bank building commandeered for the summit were not so lucky. Bicycles, normally the mainstay of the people, were liable to be towed away by overzealous police officers.
At the summit itself, suggested overhauls of the way Europe runs itself were diluted and in some cases left out of the treaty that will now be taken back to all 15 countries for ratification. Gone were references to Europe developing a common foreign policy. Proposals to integrate defence structures further within Europe were absent as well. Leaders argued about how much say big countries should have compared with smaller ones in the Council of Ministers and at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. It had been assumed for the last 15 months that progress on all these fronts at the Amsterdam summit was vital if the EU is to take in a dozen countries from central and eastern Europe in the years ahead. Despite this, European Union leaders appeared to be quite satisfied with what they had achieved.
Tony Blair said "the principle of enlargement has been very, very strongly written into everything we have done. This has made it quite clear that enlargement is the major objective of the EU and will proceed." But Britain blocked closer defence and foreign ties among the member countries fearing that going down that road would undermine both NATO, the major guarantor of peace in Europe, and Britain's special relationship with the US.
It was Chancellor Kohl, the leader of Europe's most populous country, Germany, who blocked changes to the complicated way in which decisions are taken in the EU's Council of Ministers. Yet Kohl spoke of "sensible compromises". To many of the 3,000 newspersons in Amsterdam for the summit, all this sounded like a very clear case of fudge: Europe ducking crucial decisions about the future. As if to emphasise that, Italian prime minister Romani Prodi said "the treaty made progress, but not as much as we had hoped. Concrete steps forward have been made, but at a slower pace than we would have wanted". The Dutch prime minister, who presided over the talks, described the agonising failure to make significant progress thus: "A healthy baby has arrived, but the delivery was very difficult".
If the politicians failed to deliver, there were plenty of other groups hoping to catch the eye during the summit. A march of unemployed people from countries all over Europe demanded that job creation become a political priority. Anarchists held what they called "Chaos days" in the centre of the city, demanding less intervention by the state in the everyday lives of its citizens. A street party was held to call for the legalisation of the drug, Ecstasy. There were sober events too like the 'Alternative Summit'--a chance for non-governmental organisations to discuss what they'd like to see come out of the treaty.
In a year and a half, the EU plans to touch the lives of all its 380 million inhabitants. It wants member states to introduce the ultimate symbol of European integration-a single European currency, the Euro. Designs for Euro notes were chosen six months ago. In Amsterdam, the winning design for the common side of eight new Euro coins was unveiled. All the coins feature stars and maps of the 15-nation bloc. Some portray Europe within a globe, others depict Europe as a collection of nations and the largest denominations for one and two Euros show a borderless bloc. The design on the flip side will be decided by individual countries.
Despite this bold attempt to convince Europe that a common currency will be introduced on January 1, 1999, the project nearly came off the track. France's new Socialist government objected to austerity measures and budget cutbacks required to join the Euro. It threatened to renegotiate plans drawn up by Germans to make sure countries stick to rules. The French and the Germans patched up their differences, but within 24 hours of the deal, France said it would seek new concessions on the Euro, a move that is sure to run into resistance. For now, the EU should celebrate the fact that its doors have been opened to the east. The rifts still have to be sorted out.
