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EU leaders clinch constitution deal

By Sebastian Alison

June 20, 2004

After a glass or two of champagne and a good night's sleep to celebrate agreeing on a historic constitution for the European Union, the bloc's leaders start the tough job of persuading their people to ratify it.

They also need to find a new president of the EU's executive commission, a task which has already exposed lingering divisions between member states over the US-led war in Iraq and deep-seated differences in their vision of European integration.

The constitution will give the bloc stronger leadership with a long-term president of the European Council and a foreign minister to represent it on the world stage, more powers for the European Parliament and more decisions taken by majority vote.

It is also meant to make the bloc's complex institutions easier for citizens to understand.

"This is a fundamental advance for the European Union," said Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who resurrected negotiations and steered them to success through Dublin's six-month presidency.

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"This is a win-win solution which is what we set out months ago to achieve," he said shortly before midnight on Friday after a tense, two-day summit.

But all 25 member states still have to ratify the treaty before it can take effect, some by a vote in national parliaments and some by referendum.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who faces a tough task convincing his eurosceptic electorate to approve the treaty at a referendum, started campaigning within minutes of the adoption of the text.

"We have found common cause and common allies. Surely this is the last time to marginalise ourselves in Europe," he said.

The immediate task facing the bloc's leaders, however, is to select a successor to Italian Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission from November.

There were two favourites for the job during the summit: Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, backed by France and Germany but anathema to Britain, and EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, a Briton with a poor grasp of French who was out of the question for Paris. Britain opposed Mr Verhofstadt because of his federalist view of EU integration and his anti-American stance over Iraq.

No clear front-runner was left in the frame, after the meeting and some diplomats said Mr Ahern might win broad support, although he has denied any interest in the post.

- Reuters