Agence France-Presse,
European Union foreign ministers battled late Sunday to overcome major obstacles to sorely-needed reforms so EU leaders can draw up the outlines of a new treaty this week.
“We want to try to reduce as best as possible the number of outstanding questions so as to prepare the ground for the council (summit) on Thursday,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ahead of the talks.
The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, are struggling to narrow differences on how votes are shared between the 27 EU countries and limiting national vetoes on areas like justice.
Agreement on the treaty would bring an end to two years of political uncertainty sparked by the failure of the EU's constitution and could relaunch confidence in the European project.
Germany, which holds the EU rotating presidency until the end of the month, has also urged its partners to think carefully about how the Charter of Fundamental rights should be handled.
It also wants them to think about how far the bloc should go with foreign policy, what role national parliaments should play in the EU and indeed how many competences should be allotted to Brussels.
Few ministers spoke as they arrived for the late evening conclave but those who did expressed cautious optimism for a result at the end of what is shaping up as a long week.
“There is a general willingness on the part of everyone to find and to reach a compromise,” said Steinmeier. His Austrian counterpart, Ursula Plassnik said: “There is a lot of political will.”
“I'm certain we will find a solution this week,” said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.
But key problems remain unresolved with Poland, Britain, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands the main thorns in the side of the German presidency.
As ministers met, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leading the charge for a new treaty, said Poland was sticking to its hardline stance that changes be made to the EU's voting system.
“Fundamentally, the positions have not changed,” said Merkel, a day after talks with Polish President Lech Kaczynski.
Warsaw has threatened to veto the treaty talks because it believes it will lose clout under a proposed new voting system.
Merkel said she would continue “intensive” talks with EU leaders this week to try to make headway on the treaty to replace the constitution, which was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands two years ago.
“We will try everything, but a presidency cannot succeed alone if all the other member states aren't ready to compromise,” she told reporters at a press conference with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.
Asselborn said he expected Warsaw to give ground.
“Poland is going to realise at the last moment that it is part of Europe and that as part of Europe it is necessary to make concessions,” he said.
Diplomatic sources said that a joint Spanish-French proposal had been put to the meeting outlining 10 points which “should be in the treaty.”
Among their agreed proposals were the creation of the posts of European Union president and foreign minister and the extension of majority voting at the expense of national vetoes.
The Netherlands has warned that it is waiting for a deal to be finalised before it rules out another referendum on any new text. France will endorse the treaty by parliament as, it appears, will Britain.
“We want to strengthen the role in national parliaments,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen. “We have to take into account the wish of the Dutch voters who said no to the EU constitution.”
The EU leaders want to finalise the broad outlines of the treaty, which they have pledged to try to implement by 2009, so that the issue does not influence European Parliament elections that year.
