Crucial EU summit starts today on 'reform treaty'

European Union leaders will today start a crucial two-day summit in Brussels, which will try to reach agreement on a new intergovernmental conference to conclude a reformed constitutional treaty by mid-2009, when the next European Parliament elections are scheduled.

Malta is considered to be in the block of the "non-issue" countries during these negotiations, having already approved the draft constitutional treaty in 2006. In fact, the majority of EU member states, 22, support the original text of the constitution, maintaining similar positions on the major issues. However, they may still have to give some ground.

On the other hand, five countries namely, Poland, the UK, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, want substantial changes to the treaty they signed in 2004 and will have to fight their own corners.

Malta will be represented at the summit by a delegation led by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and including Foreign Minister Michael Frendo.

Maltese diplomatic sources yesterday told The Times, that as long as the main substance of what has been negotiated in the original draft constitutional treaty is not opened again for discussion, Malta will be able to compromise.

In the draft treaty, ratified unanimously by the Maltese parliament, Malta gained the right to have an additional MEP from after the next European elections, bringing the total of Maltese MEPs to six, the same as Luxembourg and Cyprus. Malta has also kept its current vote weighting in the EU Council.

The draft constitutional treaty agreed following a previous intergovernmental conference hit a major stumbling block when France and the Netherlands did not ratify the treaty following negative referendums.

Yesterday, the German presidency circulated a first draft paper outlining the issues that it suggests need negotiations.

The 11-page document suggests that many of the innovations of the EU constitution will be dropped: the new document should be called a "Reform Treaty", the Foreign Minister should have another title, symbols such as the anthem and flag should be dropped, a sentence on the primacy of EU law should be taken out in favour of a declaration on existing EU case law, while EU legislation should continue to be called regulations and directives, instead of EU laws and framework laws.

The paper also allows for opting-out of judicial and police matters - something requested by the British, enabling member states to go forward on a given dossier while allowing others not to participate.

According to the document, if a third or nine member states want to go ahead with cooperation in this area, they should be able to.