New round of EU talks to finalise treaty
Monday, 23 Jul 2007 09:01
Portugal will present a draft treaty at the conference
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An inter-governmental conference of European Union (EU) members is being held in Brussels today to further talks on the creation of an EU treaty.
All 27 member states will participate in the talks which aim to create a basis on which the bloc is run after similar efforts two years ago were thrown into disarray when French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed European constitution.
Portugal, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, will present a draft treaty during the conference.
It aims to finalise the treaty by mid-October so that the target of having the document in place before European parliament elections in 2009 is met.
Other issues likely to be on the agenda is the proposal to send peacekeepers to the African nation of Chad in order to prevent violence from Sudan's troubled Darfur region spilling over into neighbouring countries.
British foreign secretary David Miliband is also likely to brief diplomats about developments in the Litvinenko extradition affair which has harmed relations between the UK and Russia.
The status of Kosovo is another topic likely to be taken up by representatives.
Germany held the EU presidency during the previous talks on the EU treaty in June. Poland managed to secure concessions on voting rights under the new treaty during the summit.
It is feared that the current conference might be hampered if Poland brings up the issue of voting rights again. The Daily Telegraph reports that a cross-party group of MPs is urging prime minister Gordon Brown to keep an eye on the text of the European treaty in order to prevent the role of parliament being undermined by Brussels.