Italy proposes changes to EU constitution draft

EU president Italy proposed significant changes to a draft European Union constitution yesterday but ducked the most controversial issues three weeks before EU leaders try to finalise the charter.

The constitution is designed as a rulebook to enable the bloc to run smoothly as it expands next May to 25 members from 15 now. Preparing a text to suit all 25 has inevitably led several states to call for major changes.

Italy, holder of the rotating presidency of the bloc until next month, unveiled its proposed amendments to the text two days before foreign ministers of current and future EU countries meet to negotiate on the constitution at a "conclave" in Naples.

The proposed changes included the way in which the European Central Bank operates, the role of an EU foreign minister and defence arrangements. There were also detailed amendments answering specific demands by individual states.

But diplomats said the presidency had deliberately ignored the toughest negotiating points, and was likely to propose further amendments just ahead of a December 12-13 summit of EU leaders, rather than putting them before foreign ministers now.

The toughest issues are distribution of powers within the enlarged EU by voting procedures, and the number of members in the EU's executive Commission.

Still, there was a broad welcome that there was something to discuss at Naples, even if incomplete.

"It exists. Now serious negotiations can take place. We're off, the phoney war is over," a British official told Reuters.

The proposed amendments came as top politicians across Europe dug in their heels on entrenched constitutional positions, and British newspapers quoted a senior government minister as saying London may veto the charter altogether.

Spain and Poland, which now benefit from a vote-weighting disproportionate to their populations, resist the draft text, which proposes a switch to "double majority" voting where most decisions would be taken by over half the member states representing over 60 per cent of the EU's population.

"There is no reason why Spain and Poland... should have to change their position," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said on Tuesday alongside his Polish counterpart Leszek Miller.

The presidency dodged the issue in its amendment package, saying it did not propose changing the double majority system put forward by the 105-member Convention which drafted the text.

But it added that it was "of the opinion that it is necessary to continue to reflect on possible ways to respond to these concerns," leaving the door open for further negotiation.

The Convention also calls for cutting the number of Commissioners to less than one per member state, anathema to many smaller countries which fear losing their voice.

The presidency addressed this by suggesting "clarifications" to the role of proposed "non-voting" Commissioners - adding that it did not exclude the possibility of further debate on this at the Naples conclave.

On the bitterly disputed question of whether to refer to Europe's Christian heritage in the text, the presidency said merely that it would present a proposal later, referring to both Christianity and the secular nature of EU institutions.