Summit seals mandate for EU 'Reform Treaty'[fr][de] 

In the early hours on 23 June, EU leaders managed overcome the institutional impasse and agree on the outlines of a new EU "Reform Treaty" put forward by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to replace the EU Constitution.

Heads of state and governments signed up to a detailed mandate  for an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) to start work before the end of July to hammer out the details of a new "Reform Treaty" to be adopted at the end of the year. Ratification would come in time for the 2009 European elections.

The deal was struck after the German Presidency convinced Poland to drop its opposition to a proposed double majority voting system in the Council. Faced with another rejection by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Angela Merkel threatened to convene the IGC without its reluctant Eastern neighbour. "Poland would then have the chance to join the European consensus at the governmental conference in autumn," explained German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm.

In return, an extension of the current system was negotiated, which gives Poland and Spain a high number of votes compared to the biggest member states.

The double majority voting system, requiring the assent of 55% of member states and 65% of the EU population and thus favouring large member states, will be applied from 2014, after the EU agrees on its long-term budget planning for the period 2014-2020. The new voting system will be applied during a transition period between 2014 and 2017, but a member state can still ask for the old voting system to be used if it wishes to. Moreover, a complex special clause makes it easier to build a blocking minority during that time.

Poland also managed to secure an energy solidarity clause, soothing its concerns over tense relations with Russia.

In another important concession, the UK was granted an exemption from a legally-binding Charter of Fundamental Rights and was able to rebrand the disputed "EU foreign minister" post for a "High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy". 

The new EU foreign policy chief will permanently chair ministerial meetings and serve as Vice-President of the Commission, merging the jobs of High Representative Javier Solana and external relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The foreign policy high representative will be supported by an external action service made up of national and EU diplomats.

The "Reform Treaty" takes up the main institutional changes proposed by the draft EU Constitution. It foresees: 

• the introduction of a permanent EU president;
• a foreign policy representative, and;
• provides for new compositions of the Parliament and the Commission in an enlarged Union. 

Among the new elements introduced figure a stricter separation of competences between the EU and its member states, a greater say for national parliaments and an option for closer police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.

"It wasn't easy and it went on for a long time, but we achieved what we wanted to achieve," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters at the Summit. "What counts for us is that we are moving out of stoppage, out of reflection. We have begun to move and we have a detailed mandate for an IGC."

Commission President José Manuel Barroso added: "I have to say honestly that maybe it is not the most beautiful lyrics - the text we have adopted - but I am sure it will be efficient prose." "If we had no new treaty, we would not be able to cope with enlargement," Barroso continued. "So it was a major achievement for enlargement and specifically for Croatia that we have got this agreement today," he said.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski expressed his satisfaction about the "solidarity" shown by other EU states. "After today, Poland is capable of much better cooperation with France, Britain and also Germany, because we experienced solidarity," Kaczynski said. 

Commenting on the bitter negotiations with Poland, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told journalists that the possibility of going forward without the Poles had been envisaged at some point: "This possibility…has been envisaged, but I think it was really important to keep European unity."

"I think it would not have been possible, less than twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, to leave aside the greatest of Eastern European countries," Sarkozy said. "I want everybody to realise what it would have meant for Europe - after the reunification of Europe", he underlined.

Sarkozy also celebrated the removal of references to "free and undistorted competition" from the EU’s stated objectives as a victory for French voters who rejected the Constitution in a referendum two years ago: "Competition as an ideology, as a dogma, what has it done for Europe?” Sarkozy asked, saying it only brought "fewer and fewer people who vote in European elections and fewer and fewer people who believe in Europe."

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested British interest had been safeguarded in the negotiations. "The most important thing here is the Constitutional Treaty was put on the side, we went back to a conventional Treaty." He added: "We have been arguing now for many years about these institutional questions. This deal gives us a chance to move on."

Socialist MEP and President of the Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee, Jo Leinen said: "We have a crisis of different ideologies. With 27 members the time is over that one member can stop everyone else."

The socialists in the European Parliament gave welcomed the Summit outcome, with group leader Martin Schulz saying it was "more than we expected". "The big winner is without any doubt the European Parliament," Schulz said, noting that "in future, we will elect the President of the European Commission."

"Above all, the European Parliament has increased rights to decide on legislation jointly with EU ministers," Schulz added, saying the deal "weakens the Council in relation to the European Parliament."

However, he said the hard-fought agreement was also "less than [what was] necessary" to reform the EU’s decision-making process, voicing "disappointment at the deal on the voting system in ministerial meetings."