EU: The atmosphere was one of friendly pats on the hand and diplomatic camaraderie when Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi played host to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in Rome yesterday for a working lunch, writes Paddy Agnew in Rome.
Even though the meeting was at least partly concerned with the unofficial handing over of the "poisoned chalice" - the European Union's draft constitution - from Italy, as previous holder of the EU presidency, to Ireland, there were still smiles all round.
Winding up a joint news conference, the Italian Prime Minister cheerfully wished his Irish counterpart "the best of luck" in his effort to win approval for a draft constitution during the six-month Irish presidency.
Notwithstanding the general sense of bonhomie, partly helped by the bright sunshine of a glorious Rome February day, neither Mr Berlusconi nor Mr Ahern was overly optimistic about just how and when the draft constitution might finally win the approval of the 25 member and new-member countries. Mr Ahern did, however, sound a note of warning about the dangers of procrastination on constitution approval.
He said: "It is my firm belief, and I have been around the European Council for a long time, that it is not going to get any easier. The reality is that we have the European Parliament elections this year, we have national elections in a number of countries, Spain this year, Poland next year, we have financial perspectives coming into play and we will have a new \ Parliament . . . In that context, I can see no coherent reason for suggesting that things will get easier in the longer term."
Mr Berlusconi, who registered a spectacular failure when trying to broker agreement on a draft constitution at a Brussels summit last December at the end of the Italian presidency, argued that until "certain countries" change their position, the EU would not have a new constitution.
Although Spain and Poland were at the centre of a row over voting mechanisms in the EU decision-making process during the Brussels summit, Mr Berlusconi did not name them, saying only: "We know full well that these are difficult decisions but those single states which until now have enjoyed total sovereignty must learn to relinquish a part of that sovereignty . . . They must learn to take into account European interests rather than selfish national ones."
The meeting came just two days after the Taoiseach met the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, who in turn had conveyed the views of French President Jacques Chirac.
Asked yesterday for his assessment of the possibility of finding agreement, the Taoiseach also struck a realistic note, saying: "My assessment is that it is all to work for. Clearly the vast majority [of the 25 countries] if not everybody would like to make progress . . . but that's not feasible unless the key players, and that's not necessarily the big countries, begin to move. But that \ is not there yet . . ."
In Berlin meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and Mr Schroder, were due to have a working dinner last night at which problems of the EU constitution were high on the agenda. So too were Anglo-Franco-German relations and efforts by the three states, who are to hold their own mini-summit next week, to agree common positions on several EU-related subjects, including the developing EU defence policy.
Poland vowed yesterday that it would be flexible in negotiations with France and Germany over the proposed constitution.
"We declare our flexibility, but the same flexibility must be shown by the other side," the Foreign Minister, Mr Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, told a news briefing with international media. "If we do not reach a compromise soon, we can forget about it for a long time. . .If we do not move forward in the next few weeks, we will miss the moment," Mr Cimoszewicz said. He declined details on possible concessions Poland could make.