Accord on way over Council of Ministers voting

By Dana Spinant

Date: 27/05/04

A DEAL is on the cards for a new system for voting in the Council of Ministers.

The proposal, which has emerged after a final round of negotiations on the European constitution in Brussels, will clear the way for the adoption of the constitution at the 17-18 June summit.

According to a participant in the talks, member states are likely to back a system under which decisions will be adopted if supported by 55% of member states representing 65% of the Union's population.

No additional conditions are likely to be attached to this scheme (such as the requirement that decisions can only be blocked if the member states opposing them represent a certain percentage of the Union's population). Germany has categorically ruled out any such "complication of the system", according to the source.

The compromise percentages (the draft constitution drawn up by the Convention on the EU's future proposed 50% for states and 60% for the populations they represent) are the result of tough negotiations, with Spain and Poland fighting for a higher population threshold, and small states demanding that the same percentages apply to states and their combined populations.

The 55/65 scheme emerged as the most likely solution, after a number of member states made it clear to the Irish presidency, which is chairing the negotiations, that they would not accept a difference of more than ten points between the two percentages, short of having parity.

Even though he lamented the loss of the "elegance of the Convention's formula", Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, hinted he could accept the new percentage. Spain, which with Poland opposed a new system of voting in the Council, still wants the population threshold to be raised to 66%. But insiders say Madrid will accept the new deal, forcing Poland - currently led by a caretaker government - to follow suit.

"The institutional questions are almost sorted out - we just expect the confirmation in the new compromise proposal by the Irish presidency," an official attending the negotiations in Brussels said. He added: "I don't expect the leaders to spend too much time on this at the summit. The big battle will now be over the application of the majority voting - after we spent so much time on its definition."

The biggest bones of contention remaining for the summit to resolve will be the right to keep national vetoes over justice and home affairs, the rights of migrant workers, adoption of the Union's multi-annual budget planning and foreign policy. The UK, for one, opposes the introduction of qualified majority voting (QMV) in all these areas.

Insiders believe it will be impossible to remove the right of veto in these instances - defined as the British "red lines". One "elegant compromise", as a Spanish official put it, would be to introduce qualified majority but allow member states to activate an "emergency brake" if they felt a decision taken by QMV would affect their national interest.

The issue would then be referred to the European Council, where a decision would be taken by unanimity. However, EU leaders would be given a deadline to reach a decision, in the absence of which the Council would make a decision based on QMV.

A compromise is also looking likely on another contentious constitutional issue: the reference to God. Despite firm opposition from France, Germany and Belgium, as well as considerable reluctance by Finland, Sweden and Estonia, the text may be amended to include "the importance of Christian roots" in Europe's history, but it would not mention God.