‘No’ to treaty instead of EU constitution

A MINI-TREATY, as suggested by French President Nicholas Sarkozy to replace the stalled EU constitution, is off the agenda, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern took time out from trying to form a coalition government to travel to Berlin for discussions with Ms Merkel on the constitution. He too ruled out a mini-treaty as far as Ireland is concerned and is pushing for a document in substance the same as that rejected by France and the Netherlands.

In Madrid, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Mr Sarkozy said that their positions were very close in relation to the treaty. Spain was the first country to vote in favour of the original document.

However the chancellor did not rule out adding in clauses on climate change and energy policy when she gave a press conference with the Taoiseach in Berlin yesterday. “Mr Sarkozy wants a simplified treaty and he has bid farewell to a mini-treaty. On the other hand, we are very open to ideas on energy and climate change to reflect concerns”.

She, too, stressed that they want the substance of the document hammered out over two years by members of parliament from all the member states, but said they have to take into account the fact that two countries rejected the first version.

Mr Ahern stressed that 22 of the 27 member states can support the existing text of the constitution, including Ireland. “The big thing is to preserve the substance. There is no difficulty in simplifying it. But a mini-treaty is off the agenda.”

He indicated that a simplified version would be welcome, as Ireland is likely to require a referendum to ratify any new treaty, and it was important that it be accessible to the public.

“We must ensure that we do not reopen issues that we resolved so painstakingly just a few years ago. To go back to square one would only repeat the work already done. We would end up with much the same solutions and compromises. In the process, however, the Union would have been damaged,” he warned.

The current document is 500 pages long, but just 15% of the substance is new, the rest is a rehashing of existing treaties plus the European Convention on Human Rights. Some experts say it could be cut to 70 articles.

Poland took the gloves off earlier this week in its demand for more voting power than it will have under the new document where votes are allocated roughly based on population. It said Germany, not Poland, was the problem, as the Germans just wanted more power for themselves. Poland, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands and Britain have reservations about the constitution.

The chancellor hopes that there will be the broad outline of an agreement for the EU summit in Brussels in three weeks time together with a timetable. This is expected to create an inter-governmental conference to agree the final document by December and have it ratified by all member states in time for the European Parliament elections in 2009.