THE Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, set himself a tough standard to maintain when the Foreign Ministers' Council yesterday voted through a long blocked package of aid to the Mediterranean.
The ministers also agreed to appoint a new special envoy to Mostar in former Yugoslavia and condemned the continued political involvement of Dr Radovan Karadzic.
Dr Karadzic, wanted for trial on war crimes charges, is debarred under the Dayton peace accord from participation in Bosnian politics. But his continued involvement, as leader of his own party, the SDS, if not as president, has prompted suggestions that the party should be prevented from contesting this autumn's elections.
The foreign ministers yesterday did not, however, draw conclusions on the fate of the elections, Mr Spring only expressing the hope that the pressure which has seen Dr Karadzic step down from the presidency will force his eventual retirement from politics.
The new EU representative in Mostar will oversee the renewed but final mandate of the administrator of the city, Mr Ricard Cassado. He will be the former Commandant General of the Royal Marines, Sir Martin Garret, who has been Mr Cassado's deputy.
Greece, which had vetoed the Meda programme agreed at the Barcelona summit last December and its five year £2.7 billion aid package to Turkey, has extracted a commitment from the EU to put a declaration on the principles of "good neighbourliness" to the Turks.
Mr Spring will meet the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, in Dublin on Thursday to put the declaration to her and will report to the next meeting of foreign ministers, scheduled for Tralee in early September. She is unlikely, however, to sign up.
The declaration reflects the dilemma involved in a dispute between a member state "with which a natural solidarity exists" and a neighbour "with which the EU wishes to develop a future relationship". It insists that relations must be based on "respect for international law and agreements, the relevant international practice and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states and Turkey".
Refusing to be drawn on the merits of either Greece or Turkey's claim on the Aegean island of Imia, the declaration says that all disputes should be resolved on the basis of avoidance of any action liable to raise tension, specifically the threat or use of force.
EU relations with Turkey have been dogged by bilateral disputes between Ankara and Athens, most recently since the territorial dispute over Imia. Although the Meda money has been released, the Greek Foreign Minister, Mr Theodoros Pangalos Kmadefr clear that a further £300 million of customs union related aid is still blocked.
While diplomats from other EU countries insisted that the Meda funding had been approved unconditionally, Mr Pangalos insisted that the money was not in Turkish hands until "it was in the national safe". A failure on Turkey's part to back the declaration could yet see it deprived of the cash - but this is now an unlikely outcome.
