Power struggle delays deal on EU constitution

NEGOTIATIONS on Europe’s first constitution were deadlocked last night as Spain and Poland threatened to veto the document.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described the situation as a major dilemma with no sign of compromise.

The summit, scheduled to last two days, was in danger of breaking up without a resolution, leaving it to the Irish presidency to solve.

The core of the debate is a row over how much power the four biggest states Germany, France, Britain and Italy will wield and how much integration EU leaders can swallow.

Spain and Portugal are demanding almost the same voting power as Germany, even though they have just half the population of the EU's largest country.

They won their voting strength at Nice but the convention opted instead for a simpler system of making agreements a majority of countries representing 60% of the people.

Spain and Portugal say the system gives the EU's big four too much clout. Germany, the big payer into the EU's budget, says anything else would make agreement almost impossible.

Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller was flown from his hospital bed to the meeting suffering from a cracked vertebra after a helicopter crash last week. He said Poland would use its veto "only as a last resort". His parliament has warned it will not accept anything less than the Nice deal.

The Taoiseach met his Spanish counterpart, Jose Maria Aznar, before the meeting yesterday but could see no sign of a solution.

"The Spanish have a very clear position. This is a big dilemma with the two on totally opposite sides," he said, adding Ireland can live with either system.

While there are other issues the Taoiseach said there could be as many as 20 disagreements the feeling is they will be resolved easily.

There was talk last night of Mr Aznar being willing to settle for the EU's Food Safety Authority going to Barcelona and the 60% population required to win a vote being increased to 66% for sensitive issues.

But nobody knows what the Poles might settle for. "They are the new kids on the block and could veto this constitution before they even become a member of the union," said one diplomat.

Some countries were ready to give up within hours of the meeting starting last night, leaving it to the Irish presidency to solve.

Even Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is chairing the meeting, was pessimistic having earlier said he had a secret plan.

"The vote system is a rock on which the whole deal could run aground," he said, adding it would be better to leave it for another day rather than conclude a bad deal this weekend.

But Mr Ahern said, while willing to take up the issue next year, he would prefer to find a solution now.