Ahern to complete talks over EU Constitution

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will soon complete his round of discussions with European leaders as part of the Irish Presidency’s efforts to reach consensus on a new EU Constitution.

Bertie Ahern yesterday met Polish prime minister, Leszek Miller in Dublin and afterwards described the talks as “very useful and constructive”.

Poland, along with Germany, France and Spain were the four countries whose difficulties with the proposed treaty caused the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Constitution to end in failure last December.

Since January 7, soon after Ireland assumed the Presidency, the Taoiseach has been involved in an intensive round of discussions with leaders of the 15 EU members and the 10 accession States, and has now spoken on a one-to-one basis with most prime ministers.

Government sources were yesterday sounding a note of caution as to whether or not the constitution can be agreed before the European elections. Until now, the Irish Presidency has undertaken an exercise to establish the position of each country and to sound out ideas.

Over the next two months, it will begin a process of assessing the information with a view to report back at the EU Summit meeting in March.

The Government is expected within the next few weeks to begin an assessment of the scope for progress and compromise.

“We are still being cautious. We have not yet gone into a phase where we can identify all the issues,” a source said.

The major issues are disagreement over the weighting of votes and the question of a double majority.

Some States have insisted in the past that the constitution should adhere to the principles set out in the Nice camp. But others, notably Germany, argued that their size should be recognised in the new constitution. This point was acknowledged by the Taoiseach at the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Speaking after the meeting with the Polish prime minister yesterday, the Taoiseach said: “Prime Minister Miller and I have had a very useful and constructive exchange. I gave the Prime Minister my assessment of the contacts the Irish Presidency have had with our EU partners to date on the IGC and he briefed me in relation to meetings that he has held”.