INTER-GOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE: OFFICIAL LAUNCH CONFIRMS ENTRENCHED POSITIONS.

The manner in which Silvio Berlusconi conducted the event was strongly criticised by many delegations, notably in view of the incident he sparked with his domestic political rival Romano Prodi, to whom he "forgot" to offer the stand according to usual protocol, i.e. after the President of the European Council and the European Parliament President. Finally, following off-stage consultation, the Commission President wound up a debate between Heads of State and Government yielding only very disappointing results. Mr Prodi had already not been offered his host's hand on his arrival though he had made no effort claim his position, being relegated to the far left for the traditional "family photograph" of European leaders, contrary to protocol. Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker offered a harsh verdict: "Mr Berlusconi wanted a meeting without a debate, which resulted in a meeting without value that threw up nothing new".

Spanish-Polish intransigence.

Fissures already identified have resurfaced. Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his Polish counterpart Leszek Miller thus recalled their refusal to amend the system for calculating the number of votes needed within the Council for the establishment of a qualified majority as laid down in the Nice Treaty and which will be based from January 1, 2005 on a vote-weighting mechanism granting Madrid and Warsaw the ability to form a blocking minority equal to those of the larger States thanks to over-valued weighting in relation to their demography. This provision will be repealed from November 2009 if the Convention's draft of Article I-24s.1 were to be adopted as it stands, providing for a system of double majority, a vote being passed where the majority of States represents three-fifths or 60% of the EU population. Emerging from the meeting, Mr Aznar commented "I am a veteran of this type of negotiation and I know that in order to negotiate others have to be afraid of you. Spain is simply demanding respect for the existing balances secured in the Nice Treaty. Nice represented a consensus since all the Member States signed it. Those seeking to change Nice must secure a new consensus, but they will first need to convince me", he warned. The Spanish Premier has thus set himself at variance with the Presidency's approach, arguing on the contrary that it is for those seeking to amend the draft Constitutional Treaty to secure a consensus on their own alternative proposal. However, Mr Aznar challenges this methodology...