Poles want EU constitution by June

THE chances of the European Constitution being finished during the Irish presidency got a boost from the Poles yesterday when their Foreign Minister said he would like to see it agreed before June.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, in Berlin to deliver a lecture, increased the pressure on his fellow EU leaders by warning them delaying agreement could see the constitution becoming embroiled in other details.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher, who spoke to the Taoiseach at the event, played down the row over a two-speed Europe and said it was not something Germany wanted.

One of the main stumbling blocks to reaching agreement on the constitution in Brussels in December was the refusal by the Poles and Spanish to accept new voting rules for the member states.

Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, in Paris yesterday to meet his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepain, said the constitution was needed quickly and he would like it agreed before June’s European Parliament elections.

“We need more dialogue, more consultations and more mutual understanding. There has to be greater faith in the conviction that in building a shared Europe we are not pushed by narrow national concerns but rather by a joint vision,” he said.

Mr Ahern said he had no doubt that there will be eventual agreement on a constitutional treaty but he could not say when.

However, he warned it was dangerous to allow a vacuum to develop as there were other issues on the horizon that could become embroiled in the constitution debate and make agreement difficult. For instance, the EU budget outline is due to be released by the Commission on January 25.

The Germans, as the biggest contributor to the EU, have already made it clear there is a link between agreeing the constitution and the sum they will be prepared to pay after 2007.