No 'no' from Madrid on EU voting shake-up

Spain is prepared to compromise on EU voting rights in order to secure a European constitution, Miguel Angel Moratinos has insisted.

The Spanish foreign minister has dismissed claims that the new centre-left Madrid government is unwilling to move.

"We are not saying 'no' to anything", he said after talks in Brussels on Tuesday.

Under the premiership of José Maria Aznar Spain blocked the last round of constitution negotiations.

Madrid is concerned over a proposed voting regime which scraps the current Nice EU Treaty, under which Spain has considerable political clout, in favour of votes linked to population – a system known as ‘double majority’.

Moratinos remained adamant Spain’s new Socialist government would show more flexibility.

"We have made an important jump which is to put Nice to one side and we are concentrating on double majority voting," he told journalists.

"And within double majority we are defending what we think is reasonable in the interests of Spain."

But he said Madrid would still expect a compromise on the new voting weights which would strip Spain of much of its clout within the new European Union.

"It would be stupid to accept automatically the system proposed", he said.

• Previous article
• Next article