Cowen leads EU constitution negotiations

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, will lead EU foreign ministers today in resuming the process of painstaking negotiations for Europe's new constitution with the aim of delivering a final charter by mid-June.

Minister Cowen presents a new tightened agenda to resolve key disputes among the 25 current and soon-to-be EU governments, on a draft text that comprises 465 articles.

The talks collapsed amid acrimony last December when Italy led the negotiations. Ireland took over in January, promising to assess chances of resuming the talks so the constitution may take effect in 2005.

The chances improved with the defeat of Spain’s former conservative government in March elections. Spain and Poland vetoed new EU voting rules at the time.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern wants a final deal at a June 17-18 EU summit in Brussels.

Under that scenario, the EU foreign ministers would agree today to start a final round of negotiations on May 17, officials said.

The constitution must be ratified by EU legislatures or in referendums. At least seven states are to hold votes and passage is far from assured.

The draft constitution has been two years in the making.

The version now on the table aims to accelerate decision-making in an enlarged EU of 25 members and boost the union’s role on the world stage by creating an EU president and foreign minister and tighten defence cooperation.

In December, Spain and Poland vetoed new voting rules saying they grant too much power to Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

They held on to a deal, worked out in 2000, giving them almost as much voting clout as the EU’s four biggest members.

Spain’s new Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has said he is committed to resolving the issue which also led Poland – which enters the EU along with nine other newcomers this week – to lift its reservations.