EU/ IRELAND: The Taoiseach has said that he is looking forward to EU member-states telling him which possible solutions to the current impasse over voting weights they like, rather than simply telling him the ones they don't like.
Mr Ahern, who is entering the final 10 days of talks with other EU leaders before a European Council meeting on March 25th and 26th, said yesterday that a number of possible solutions to the disagreement over voting rights in the European Council were being discussed. The relative strength of member-states' votes is a central issue blocking agreement on a new EU constitutional treaty.
"But voting weights is nothing to do with mathematical solutions - it's to do with power and influence. If this was a mathematical issue, it would have been solved in the first week of January," he said.
Many possible solutions were being floated, he went on. "But the question I put to everybody is that they can tell me what they don't like, but can they tell me how they intend to operate Europe in the future? I am increasingly looking forward to them telling me what they like."
The discussions currently centre on the concept of a "double majority", whereby decisions would be taken if there were a majority of member-states representing a certain minimum proportion of the EU's population.
The Taoiseach said yesterday that proposals for what this proportion should be ranged between 55 per cent and 70 per cent and everything in between. "From the sublime to the ridiculous, and we have to get a compromise that satisfies everyone."
He said that the 70 per cent figure was not workable, while there were arguments for and against the 55 per cent figure. The issue was how to make an EU of between 25 and possibly 32 states work in the future. "How can it make prompt, swift, decisive decisions, or do we become paralysed by the process?"
Mr Ahern will report to the European Council meeting on whether he thinks there is a possibility of agreement on the constitution if talks in an inter-governmental conference on the issue are reopened.