Start of IGC on EU treaty

Just a few days before EU institutions rise for the summer recess, EU Foreign Ministers and Commission President José Manuel Barroso yesterday met in an intergovernmental conference formation in Brussels in the last leg of negotiations leading to a new EU treaty.

The IGC, which will discuss the last technical issues before the new treaty is signed, is scheduled to conclude its work by mid-October.

The Portuguese presidency distributed a new text of the reformed treaty, which puts into legal jargon all the details of a deal reached between the 27 EU leaders last month.

According to the presidency, the member states will now start talks to iron out any differences of a technical nature.

The presidency is adamant that the issues agreed upon during the June summit will not be opened again for discussions as some member states, particularly Poland, would like to.

Addressing a press conference at the end of yesterday's IGC, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado did not rule out the possibility of new battles over how power is divided among EU member states, but said he was confident a deal would be struck.

Portugal has set an October 18 deadline for EU governments to complete and agree on a final draft, making sure the treaty can be adopted before the next European Parliament elections planned for 2009.

Mr Barroso called on EU governments to "work quickly but carefully" to secure a deal by the deadline.

The new treaty would replace the EU draft constitutional treaty, which was rejected by Dutch and French voters two years ago.

The treaty retains many key elements of the now defunct Constitution. EU officials said the slimmed-down version can be approved by parliaments, avoiding tricky referendums. Ireland has said, however, it will have to hold a referendum. The accord will ensure the 27-member EU can take decisions by majority rather than unanimous voting in 50 new areas including judicial and police cooperation - a move that aims to make it easier to set policy by ending national vetoes.

The draft also includes a reform of the European Commission and a revamped post of EU foreign policy chief.

After the treaty is signed, it will have to be ratified by all the 27 member states individually, even by those, like Malta, that have already ratified the proposed new Constitution.

During last month's talks, Malta managed to retain in the new text all the issues it had negotiated in the previous Constitution including an increase of one MEP at the next European Parliament elections and a specific reference to its island-member status, placing it in a better position for the granting of cohesion funds. Speaking to The Times, Foreign Michael Frendo said Malta does not appear to have any problems with the new text. "We have no further issues following the negotiations held last month.

We will now study in detail the text to make sure that what has been agreed will be reflected in the final version," he said.