Minister Bot verwacht dat Nederland Europese grondwet rond krijgt (en)

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot sees little chance of wrapping up negotiations over the Constitution under the Irish Presidency and is preparing to tackle the thorny issue when the Netherlands take over the EU chair in July.

According to Le Figaro, Mr Bot said yesterday in Paris that there was "a margin of two or three weeks" between the Spring European summit in March (where the Irish will present a progress report on talks) and the European elections in June.

And he added, "I do not really see - given what happened at the summit in December - how we will be able to finish such difficult negotiations so quickly".

"If the Irish do manage to acheive a deal", he concluded, "that will be very good".

But if this proves impossible, the Dutch intend to wrap up talks "in October or November, whatever happens, before the summit in December".

The timetable for negotiations during the Irish Presidency - which runs until 30 June - is very crowded. There are Spanish elections on 14 March, then European elections in June. EU leaders are also expected to have tough negotiations on the new multi-annual EU budget from mid-February onwards and the battle over the euro rules continues.

Dutch 'no' to core Europe

If no agreement can be reached on the Constitution, France and Germany have threatened to push ahead with 'pioneering groups' but Mr Bot is adamantly against this.

"We are against a management system which allows neither co-operation nor transparency", he said.

He believes that the current system "has worked very well until now" and that "we should not destroy what we have taken so much trouble to build".