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E.U. mulls over key changes

By Vaiju Naravane

Paris Nov. 29. The European Union's Italian presidency today proposed putting off any change to Member-States' voting rights for another five years in an attempt to resolve a row blocking agreement on the E.U.'s first constitution.

The talks have been deadlocked over demands by Spain and Poland to retain the generous voting power they secured under the E.U.'s 2000 Nice Treaty.

Voting rights, the temporarily suspended Growth and Stability Pact and the inclusion of references to Europe's religious roots were some of the contentious issues that the Foreign Ministers struggled to resolve at their meeting in Naples.

The Ministers are meeting two weeks ahead of a major European Summit on the constitution.

A major breakthrough was achieved in defence with most members approving plans by Britain, France and Germany to give the E.U. its own military planning facility independent of NATO.

The French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, announced "the basis for a proposal" by the trio for an independent planning cell to boost the E.U.'s military capabilities.

A British diplomat however threw a damper on his exuberance by underlining: "Any E.U. planning capability has to be compatible with NATO."

Belgium, Germany, France and Luxemburg, the hardliners in favour of an independent defence arm, had to dilute their proposal to have a separate E.U. defence headquarters at Tervuren, outside Brussels. They will have to be content with a planning facility with about 130 staff officers based in the E.U. district of Brussels. Amid fruitless debates, Italy presented a compromise whereby the preamble would refer not only to Europe's Christian heritage, but also to the secular nature of the members' institutions. But countries like France or Germany that have enshrined secularism in their constitutions are unlikely to budge.

The text changes require unanimity. Italy, Spain, Ireland and future member Poland are pushing for the specific Christianity reference urged by Pope John Paul II.

Britain, saying that a constitution was desirable but not strictly necessary, added that it would veto any attempts to make it bend to common foreign, tax, employment or immigration policy.

The tone of the talks has also been affected by the Finance Ministers' decision to temporarily suspend the Growth and Stability pact rather than penalise France and Germany for running up huge deficits. The French robustly defended the Ministers' decision, saying nothing had changed. But several countries voiced both bitterness and concern.

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