LISTENING to German officials in Amsterdam late on Tuesday night as they struggled to put a positive spin on the summit, it was difficult to avoid the impression of disappointment.
"Of course, it's not everyone's ideal. It includes a heap of compromises. But summits don't operate in airless rooms or seminars. Remember, each government must be able to sell this deal to the public at home," said one official.
The revised treaty falls far short of the original ambition of the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, to take European integration a decisive step forward and to prepare the EU for enlargement to the east. But when Dr Kohl spoke to reporters at 4 a.m. yesterday, he sounded optimistic and satisfied.
"The Treaty of Amsterdam is further proof of the commitment of the responsible parties to the European project," he declared.
The reason for Dr Kohl's satisfaction is that in terms of Germany's national interests and the Chancellor's own political interests, he won every round at Amsterdam. Monday's resolution of Bonn's dispute with Paris over Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) left Germany's cherished stability pact intact. The price was a resolution committing the EU to fighting unemployment but in accordance with Bonn's wishes, it involved no extra burden on EU funds.
Germany annoyed its partners on Tuesday morning when Dr Kohl announced a sudden Uturn over political asylum, insisting that the national veto must be retained for all EU decisions on the issue.
"Many of our neighbours don't understand how sensitive the issue is for us. When we talk about the asylum problem, we are talking about the same thing but from different positions. After all, Germany accepted more than half of all asylum seekers in the EU last year and more than the entire United States," Dr Kohl said yesterday morning.
The background to Dr Kohl's Uturn lies in the furious efforts Germany is making to keep its budget deficit below the level laid down for entry to EMU. Bonn is putting massive pressure on the 16 federal states to cut spending. But the states which must feed, clothe and house many thousands of asylum seekers each year argue that much of their financial burden is due to decisions made in Bonn and Brussels.
This pressure from the states which control Germany's Upper House of Parliament also explains Germany's wateringdown of the extension of qualified majority voting in many areas. Dr Kohl, who has been politically weakened by a succession of budget crises, knows that he needs the support of the federal states if the revised treaty is to be ratified by the German parliament.
Although the new French government climbed down on its threat to postpone the signing of the EMU stability pact, the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, can claim with some justification to have won a moral victory at Amsterdam. French officials spoke of a sea change in the EU which would see Europe placing the interests of ordinary citizens above those of bankers and businessmen.
Few of Europe's citizens understood the minutiae of institutional reform or the single currency. But everybody is conscious of the need to create more jobs. The Socialist government in Paris, which succeeded in maintaining a united front in Amsterdam with President Jacques Chirac, believes it has set a new tone for Europe.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, was also in a position to claim yesterday morning that he had achieved all his aims at Amsterdam. Britain, supported by Ireland and others, successfully blocked a Franco German plan to merge the EU with its defence arm, the WEU. Britain won an opt out on border controls and a new deal on the touchy subject of fish quotas.
But the most striking feature of Britain's performance in Amsterdam was its new positive tone and a willingness to find solutions to Europe's problems.
