Forbes.com: EU SUMMIT Leaders agree deal on new EU treaty after marathon meeting
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EU SUMMIT Leaders agree deal on new EU treaty after marathon meeting
Leaders of the EU finally agreed a deal on a treaty to replace the bloc's failed constitution after a marathon session that went into the early hours of Saturday. After hours of wrangling, agreement was finally reached on the blueprint document to reform EU institutions that will now be carried forward and signed at the end of the year. Negotiations had dragged through the night after a row on voting rights with Poland threatened to scupper the entire deal.
"Poland agreed in principle to the German idea of ‘double majority’ – the rule of approving all decisions in the EU by 55 percent of countries whose population accounts for more than 65 percent of the EU population. Poland has been promised a postponement of the introduction of the new voting system till 2017. Also, Germany succeeded in securing Britain’s consent to the concept of a new agreement. It agreed to the renaming of the office of the EU foreign minister, who from now on will be called the high representative of the European Union. Britain was also given guarantees the charter of fundamental rights mentioned in the treaty would cause no effects on its legal system. The details of the agreement that took nearly 36 hours to finalize have not been disclosed yet, but many European sources say the EU heads of state and government agreed on the mandate of an international conference commissioned to produce the full text of the EU treaty.
Merkel hopes the treaty will be finalized, signed and ratified by June 2009."
Labels: EU CONSTITUTION, Europe, Unity
