A major political development to give the European Commission more power and authority was announced today.
Commission president Mr Romano Prodi signalled his determination to take more control from EU governments in time for the expansion of the union to add 10 more countries.
He said that by the end of next year he wanted a radical shake-up to create an inner core of commission vice-presidents to set policies for the EU.
All the commissioners - one for each of the 25 member states - would then meet on a monthly basis to endorse new proposals.
"All the EU institutions must be reformed, including the Commission," said Mr Prodi.
At the moment the larger countries in the 15-nation union have two commissioners. But it is already agreed that will have to change when the EU expands.
Today Mr Prodi warned that he would not allow the Commission to become a "dictatorship", effectively run by the bigger member states to the detriment of the smaller ones.
He said his ideas were still in the early stages, with no decisions yet on how many Commission vice presidents would be appointed or how the country represented by the powerful "inner core" would be chosen.
But his plan is bound to be seized on eurosceptics as more evidence of a power grab by an unelected European bureaucracy.
AFP