EU political and diplomatic circles were yesterday feeling a renewed surge of confidence that the Amsterdam summit next week will be able to complete the key single currency stability pact.
Rumours current on Monday that the Dutch Presidency was preparing itself for a second mini summit before the end of the month were denied firmly.
The German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, and the Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, who met in Bonn yesterday, expressed confidence that the revised Maastricht Treaty would be signed in Amsterdam next week.
The confident mood was helped by comments from the spokeswoman for France's new left wing government, Ms Catherine Trautmann, who referred to the "compromise which will be adopted in Amsterdam".
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, also made it clear to his lower house of parliament that Bonn did not have a problem with French demands for an agreement to enhance economic co ordination in the union.
Diplomats are now working frantically on wording for the summit that will incorporate references to Articles 102 (a) and 103 of the Maastricht Treaty in a resolution or addendum to the stability pact. They insisted there was no question of reopening the agreement reached in Dublin last year, on rules binding the European currencies to strict financial disciplines, or of going beyond the Maastricht agreement to coordinate policies.
Any compromise is likely to be put to a special finance ministers' meeting on Sunday night on the eve of the summit. Today the President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, travels to Paris to meet the new French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin.
Earlier he had told a debate at the European Parliament that French demands for emphasis on growth and employment could be added to the pact without undermining the main thrust of the arrangements to ensure budgetary discipline by countries using the future single currency.
But he also expressed concern about "last minute" attempts to undo work by the EU InterGovernmental Conference (IGC) to reform EU institutions. Mr Santer insisted that the stability pact must get its ratification at Amsterdam or the union's failure to do so could be misunderstood by markets.
He urged governments to resist the temptation to use the final dash to the line as an opportunity to use various protocols or amendments as a means of settling problems unsuited to constitutional improvisation".
Reuter adds from Strasbourg:
The European Parliament made a blistering attack yesterday on a draft of the treaty due to be signed in Amsterdam next week.
The new treaty falls far short of wide reaching reforms EU leaders had pledged last year to prepare the bloc for an ambitious eastwards expansion early next century, the Strasbourg assembly said in a highly critical resolution.
Ms Pauline Green, leader of the parliament's largest political party, the Socialists, said a plan for a special chapter on employment isn't good enough and it's just pious rhetoric".
The parliament also criticised the draft treaty for failing to make the EU's institutions better able to cope with up to 10 new members from eastern and central Europe.
