The prospects of a legally binding status for a new EU charter on human rights virtually disappeared yesterday as eight prime ministers lined up against it. "The trend is quite clear," said the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen.
Only two heads of government, Holland's Mr Wim Kok, and Austria's Chancellor, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, argued that the charter being drafted by a convention representing member-states, national parliaments and MEPs should be more than a political declaration and should be incorporated in the EU treaty.
Although the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, did not speak to the issue, Ireland's position is also to limit the charter to a political declaration.
Meanwhile, in a debate on the treaty-changing Inter-Governmental Conference, leaders agreed as expected to extend negotiators' remit to include simplification of the Amsterdam Treaty's provisions for reinforced co-operation or flexibility.
The idea is to make it easier for groups of member-states to undertake projects together without the full participation of all member-states, but still within an EU framework.
The move was not opposed, although some leaders warned that they should be careful not to send the wrong signal to the accession states by appearing to lay the basis for a two-tier Europe.
The Taoiseach said later to journalists that while the proposals currently on the table on the issue were broadly acceptable it was clear that the French were not being utterly candid about what they were intending during their presidency, and there were dangers in the drift to the idea of a two-tier Union.
The leaders' conservatism on the charter will be a bitter blow to MEPs and many of the national parliamentarians who had high hopes that the incorporation of a justiciable charter into the treaty would form the basis of a new European constitution and also give significant added value to human rights guarantees provided by the European Convention of Human Rights and the Council of Europe.
But the latter's officers, who attend the convention's deliberations as observers, have warned of a jurisdictional clash between EU and Strasbourg courts.
And Mr Cowen pointed out last night that many of the rights being spoken of could already be upheld through the domestic courts.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, reflecting the views of many conservatives and of employer organisations, added salt to the wounds of the more ambitious charter enthusiasts by insisting that under no circumstances would Spain back a charter which created new enforceable social rights.
Although he could accept the enunciation of general principles of such rights, their implementation in detail must be left to member-states, he insisted.
He and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, met ahead of the meeting to agree their joint approach to the charter issue, and the latter led the charge of leaders against any form of binding charter.
The Portuguese Prime Minister and President of the European Council, Mr Antonio Guterres, said: "It is better to have a truly substantial charter of fundamental rights with less legal value than the other way round." Diplomats say, however, that even if December's Nice summit does not agree to incorporate the charter a declaration will probably reflect a desire to do so eventually.
Meanwhile, the respected chairman of the Convention, Germany's former president, Mr Werner Herzog, has resigned from the chair because of the death of his wife.
