By Nicola Smith - 8th December 2003
Europe's constitution looks set to stand or fall over the contentious issue of EU voting strengths following last-minute talks in Brussels on Monday.
The Italian EU presidency will release proposals to resolve this question and other outstanding controversies on Tuesday.
National capitals will then have just a few days to finalise their negotiating tactics ahead of marathon talks this weekend.
The general consensus emerging from Monday’s meeting of foreign ministers was that the new treaty would not be accepted at any price.
“It is better not to have a constitution at all than a bad one,” Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini told reporters.
Frattini added that Rome was “optimistic” about a Christmas deal on the constitutional treaty, although there is widespread expectation that talks may continue until Sunday.
Remaining upbeat, he told reporters that agreement hinged on the issue of voting rights alone.
“There were 92 points of disagreement at the beginning but now the only real problem left is the double majority issue,” he said.
But little progress has been made on the carve up of voting rights between 25 EU member states and a final deal on the constitution could be scuppered by strong opposition from Spain and Poland.
Both countries, whose ministers were not present at Monday’s meeting, are fiercely resisting any moves to dilute the rights awarded to them by the Nice Treaty, which granted them voting powers over and above their population size.
Frattini confirmed on Monday that Rome will stick to the “double majority” formula, proposed by the European Convention – the 105-strong body that penned the draft constitutional text.
This would base future EU decisions on a balance of 50 per cent of ministers voting, representing 60 per cent of the EU’s population.
EU heavy-hitters, in particular Germany, are heading for a certain clash at the weekend with Madrid and Warsaw over the question.
To bring the constitution down to the level of Nice would not make much sense, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer argued on Monday.
“Reverting to Nice will not lead Europe into the future,” he said, adding that it would be in Europe’s best interests to find a better functioning voting system.
EU ministers did, however, make headway on closer cooperation on defence, broadly accepting an Anglo-French-German proposal tabled in Naples two weeks ago.
The proposal outlines a system of “structured cooperation” which would allow a group of EU countries to take the lead in pushing forward defence policies.
A solution has yet to be found on a sticking point over a proposed mutual defence pact which has been challenged by the EU’s four neutral countries – Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Austria.
A joint proposal by the four nations, which aimed to remove the automatic nature of assistance to any EU country that was the victim of armed aggression was not fully accepted by the foreign ministers.
But Frattini confirmed the general understanding that the four had to meet their own constitutional commitments on military issues.
He said the Italian proposal would be “reworked” to deal with these constitutional restraints while allowing the neutral states to “feel on board in the defence project”.
Opt-outs and opt-ins would not be the solution, he added, as this would give the impression of the exclusion of some members.
UK foreign minister Jack Straw said that there “has to be an agreement acceptable to all if there is an agreement at all.”
He added that the question of creating an EU military planning cell “was coming towards a resolution” although it is generally accepted that agreement is not vital at the same time as the constitution.
Currently on the table is a proposal to create a small operational planning cell in Brussels for EU missions conducted independently of the Atlantic alliance.
This would also see the majority of staff based at NATO’s military HQ, known as SHAPE, located in southern Belgium.
Finally, national ministers are still seeking to resolve a political wrangle between the council and the European Parliament over the EU’s budgetary powers.
The Italian presidency is trying to head off a constitutional clash over which institution has the final say on the spending of the EU’s €100 billion annual budget.
Many EU leaders are seeking to introduce genuine co-decision to the budgetary procedure, where currently the parliament alone can make the final rulings.
“We think this is necessary to maintain institutional balance” argued French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.
“We need a different kind of tie-break,” added his UK counterpart Jack Straw.
But any move to dilute their budgetary powers have until now been strongly resisted by MEPs who have threatened to vote against the final constitution if it goes ahead.
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