THE EU: In its role as president of the EU Council of Ministers, the Government last night launched an attempt to close discussion on the bulk of the draft constitutional treaty, leaving only the most contentious issues to be fought over at next week's summit meeting.
The Government circulated to the other 24 states revised texts for large parts of the constitutional treaty. The texts cover 49 subject areas, ranging from the appointment of an EU minister for foreign affairs to animal welfare.
They can be discussed at Monday's meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
In a note accompanying the texts, the Government explains: "The presidency considers that this document represents a fair balance between the different views of delegations. However, it submits the document in advance of the ministerial meeting on Monday to ensure that no fundamental problems remain, and to avoid further discussion on these issues at the meeting of the Inter-Governmental Conference at the level of Heads of State or Government on June 17th-18th."
The summit next Thursday and Friday is supposed to conclude agreement on the terms of a constitution for the EU.
With the negotiations approaching endgame, the Taoiseach wants to concentrate the attention of his counterparts on the knottiest problems.
The presidency aims to circulate a second batch of texts, covering more contentious issues at the weekend. They will consider whether to strengthen mention of the EU's Christian heritage in the constitution's preamble, although Mr Ahern said last week he did not believe there would be change on this point.
The German, Italian, Polish and Greek foreign ministers have said that on Monday they will be raising the issue of the power of the Commission to enforce the stability and growth pact.
There is a third range of issues which will be left for the summit to decide, principally relating to the EU's institutions, such as the policy areas for which decision-making in the council of ministers would need unanimity and individual states would retain a power of veto. The summit will also haggle over how to weigh voting on the council to take account of the population of each member-state, the size and structure of the Commission, and the number of MEPs from each state.
The document circulated last night covers texts which have been negotiated by officials and foreign ministers rather than heads of government, and as such are unlikely to make or break the constitution.