Taxes, votes, defence and God threaten birth of Europe’s first Constitution

By Ann Cahill Europe’s leaders were upbeat and cheerful about the task when they met in Rome over the weekend, but there was no way of hiding the massive stumbling blocks that lie ahead.

As 10,000 police held a few thousand anti-globalisation protesters at bay on the streets of Rome and around the huge complex of buildings built by Mussolini 70 years ago, heads of government set out their demands.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said there are about 10 issues raised by the 25 countries and while five of them can be resolved through discussion he said five were going to be quite difficult.

Poland and Spain were the most hardline, refusing to play down their determination to keep their advantage in terms of EU voting strength. Under the complex voting mechanism agreed in Nice three years ago, both countries have a voting strength of 25, two short of Germany, despite the latter having twice the population.

Even though Poland does not become a full EU member officially until May, it was agreed each of the accession countries would have a veto on the Constitution. The Poles have made it quite clear they will use it.

A spokesperson for the Polish government underlined this no compromise position by saying any ministers suggesting to the parliament that they should compromise would face a confidence vote.

Spain, with more experience of the EU's politics of compromise, was less hardline. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said that he would not surrender, but adding “when you are negotiating its better to be feared”.

The draft Constitution provides for decisions to be taken by a majority vote representing a majority of countries representing at least 60% of the EU’s population. If every country does not agree to this, the Nice arrangement would stand.

While the gloves did not come off at the weekend’s talks there were clear indications from both France and Germany that they were not prepared to give in to Poland and Spain.

President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, using very similar language, indicated they would vote against funds for both countries if the voting system was not approved.

“Of course there is a link”, the two leaders said when asked if they would link funds to the issue. Germany is one of the EU’s largest paymasters and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has been warning for some time that he wants the Constitution approved before talks on the next round of funding begins.

Poland is to the fore too in pushing for a reference to God or at least to Europe’s Judaeo-Christian heritage in the preamble to the Constitution. While they have the support of a number of countries, several, including Ireland, are passive about the idea while Sweden, Denmark and France are firmly opposed.

The ministers have given themselves ten weeks to agree the details of the document put together by a 105-member Convention over 16 months. While they liked the format and would change very little, the demands of a few countries threatens to open what French President Jacques Chirac described as a Pandora’s box.

They quickly agreed to scrap a Legislative Council of member countries’ ministers designed to oversee all draft legislation. But that was the easy part.

The draft Constitution does not provide them with all the answers and left it to the member states to agree details on how they will organise the Foreign, Finance and other councils. Proposals on this will be considered by the foreign ministers at their next meeting next Monday.