Germany: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has said Germany will "not budge" at Friday's EU summit in Brussels in the dispute over vote weighting and the size of the future European Commission.
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, said he was "55 per cent optimistic" of reaching agreement on the future European Constitution.
"I'm happy that the Italian presidency sees the question of voting rights exactly as Germany does, that we should remain with the outcome of the constitutional convention," said Mr Schröder after meeting Mr Berlusconi in Berlin yesterday. "This is a question on which we will not budge".
Berlin insists on a reweighting of voting under the so-called "double majority" rule, while Spain and Poland are calling for the retention of the Nice Treaty voting weights, giving the two countries just two votes less than France and Germany, despite considerably smaller populations.
Mr Berlusconi said it would be "a grave mistake to wrap up [the summit] at any cost" with "a constitution that does not guarantee Europe institutions that allow it to make decisions and function".
"We truly hope that in Brussels, even at the last minute, an agreement can be found . . . so that Europe can have a dignity equal to all other world powers," said Mr Berlusconi. "With this meeting, the 50-50 optimism I expressed yesterday has risen slightly to 55-45 in favour of the summit succeeding." This was not because Germany had offered any new compromises, he said, but because Berlin's views coincided with a "large majority" of EU members.
Mr Schröder congratulated the Italian leader on his "extraordinarily professional work" on the Italian presidency. Meanwhile the Polish foreign minister, Mr Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, said in Warsaw that the EU would not "collapse" if no agreement was found in Brussels.