News • December 14 2003

Europe’s champagne turns sour

The champagne uncorked in Copenhagen last year at the end of the Danish presidency when agreement was brokered with all 10 accession countries has turned sour with European Union leaders having nothing to toast about after failing to agree on the new EU constitution yesterday.
The marathon two-day talks led by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country held the six months rotating EU presidency, could not break the deadlock on the double-majority voting system for the Council of Ministers, proposed by the Constitution.
Spain and Poland refused to budge from the voting arrangement agreed upon in Nice three years ago. The new Constitution proposes changing the Nice arrangement to allow for a voting system that would require the support of at least 50 per cent of member states with 60 per cent of the EU’s population to approve legislation.
Medium-sized countries like Spain and Poland argued that the new voting system would favour the larger states – Britain, Germany and France – and the smaller states.
Poland’s Prime Minister, who was also the protagonist during the Copenhagen talks last year with final minute brokering, was reported as saying that his country would not move one millimetre from what Poland achieved in the Treaty of Nice.
Failure to reach an agreement means that the problem is now in the hands of Ireland that takes on the EU presidency in January. But doubts have already been expressed as to how successful a new round of brokering could be. Before the start of the summit, European Parliament President Pat Cox had said that he could not see how non-agreement in December could suddenly turn into agreement in the New Year.
Agreement on the Constitution was seen as vital for the smooth running of the EU when it enlarges to 25 states in May next year. The Constitution was drafted after 17-long months of hard work in the Convention on the Future of Europe. However, like any other treaty before it, to be approved the Constitution needs to have the backing of all member states.
Apart from double-majority voting, other outstanding issues concerned the minimum number of parliamentary seats and whether the EU Commission should expand to 25 with each state appointing a commissioner with voting rights. The last two issues were of particular interest to Malta.
The Maltese government argued for the minimum number of parliamentary seats to be raised from four, as proposed in the Constitution, to six. Malta also wanted an expanded Commission with every state appointing a commissioner with voting rights. Agreement on these two issues was seen as possible.