EU constitutional talks head to the wire

Delegates drafting the European Union’s first-ever constitution continued last minute haggling today about a final text that could introduce sweeping changes to how the EU is run.

The 105-member panel drafting the EU charter is expected to hold marathon talks into the night in a bid to meet tomorrow’s midday deadline.

The chairman of the European Convention, former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing said tomorrow’s session would be the last before he is to present the first two parts of the 462-article constitution to EU leaders in Greece on June 19-20.

The Convention will finalise the last part of the constitution in July.

Many members, including Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio and her German counterpart Joschka Fischer yesterday tried to change the text to their liking. Others asked for clarifications as to how much power a proposed EU president would have.

Britain’s chief negotiator Peter Hain warned however that reopening finished articles would threaten getting a final agreement in time.

“If you start reopening all of this we are going to walk away on Friday with a failure,” Mr Hain said.

“We already have a compromise on the big issues.”

Unresolved issues include whether to extend majority voting to such issues as foreign policy, taxation, immigration and asylum.

Meanwhile, Spain leads several countries seeking to retain a complex deal reached three years ago on how the votes will be allocated in a bigger EU. Under that deal, Spain won extra votes beyond its population size, and is keen not to lose them.

Delegates were presented the outline of a compromise last Friday on the key articles that would create a EU president, a foreign minister and ending national vetoes in many areas.

All of these proposals have long been in dispute in the Convention, which include representatives of EU governments and institutions as well as national parliaments and began its work in February, 2002.

All EU governments will have to approve the constitution before it can take effect.

A review of the new rule book by governments is expected this autumn.