Malta to participate in EU Constitution meeting

Malta has been invited to participate in a meeting in Madrid later on this month to put forward its views on the future of the European Union's constitutional treaty.

The meeting, being organised on the initiative of Spain and Luxembourg, is only open to member states that have already ratified the EU Constitution. The meeting, dubbed Friends Of The Constitution: Towards A Better Europe, aims to help the German EU presidency direct the debate on the constitutional treaty and take account of the support of over two thirds of EU member states for the treaty.

The initiative has not been welcomed by some of the EU member states which have not ratified the treaty, particularly France. President Jacques Chirac, whose country rejected the treaty in 2005 in a referendum, snubbed the Hispano-Luxembourg initiative and said that "it shouldn't be given much importance".

Member states invited for the meeting will be represented by their Minister of Foreign Affairs. Apart from the 18 member states that have already ratified the treaty, the organisers also invited Portugal and Ireland, which have yet to ratify the text, but which have expressed an interest in taking part in this initiative.

Contacted yesterday a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Malta will be taking part.

Speaking to the press following her speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg earlier this week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her intention to prepare a roadmap and to re-launch negotiations using the current draft constitutional treaty as basis.

"We will not start from scratch. Our starting point will be the constitutional treaty, which was signed by all EU heads of state and government, and the substance of which the German presidency would like to retain. This however does not mean there will be no changes," Ms Merkel said.

The Chancellor said it is essential to keep to the timetable drawn up by the European Council last June in the search for a solution by the French EU presidency in the second half of next year at the latest.

"I do not see how it would be possible to go for the 2009 European elections without a new treaty," she remarked.

The German presidency is planning to finalise a detailed roadmap by the end of its presidency in June.