There is a good chance that the European Union's first ever constitution can be agreed under Ireland's presidency, the EU Commissioner for Regional Affairs Mr Michel Barnier said this morning.
"The momentum is there," Mr Barnier told Belgian De Standaard paper in an interview.
"The chances of reaching an agreement before the European elections or by the end of June at the latest, are real. The atmosphere has completely changed from last December."
The charter is aimed at improving the efficiency of the bloc which is set to expand from 15 members to 25 in May.
A dispute pitting Germany and France against Poland and Spain, led to the collapse of an EU Summit in December.
The Irish EU presidency hopes to re-launch constitution talks at a Brussels summit on Friday.
Germany and Poland said they had broken a deadlock over the constitution on Tuesday. They declined to give details but said a deal could by reached by the end of June.
"The pressure on the governments is larger because the May 1st enlargement is near as are the European elections on June 13th... I don't think the public opinion would accept it if the governments don't agree now," Mr Barnier said. "A failure would increase the fear of chaos."
Spain and Poland blocked a deal in December in order to defend the weighted voting rights they won in the 2000 Nice treaty, which gave them almost as much power as the four most populous states - Germany, France, Britain and Italy.
Under the current "double majority" proposal, most EU decisions would be adopted by a majority of member states representing 60 per cent of the population.
Spain and Poland are sure to demand changes to that formula to protect their power to bloc decisions.
"What it comes down to is to find an honourable compromise that suits everybody. We won't succeed if a country or a government is humiliated," Mr Barnier said. "I think we absolutely have to maintain the new system of double majority."
But he said they could "change the threshold a bit and fiddle with the timing of the implementation of the new system" to help new member countries adapt.