EU:Officials from 20 EU states have warned against dismantling the EU constitution to meet the concerns of French and Dutch voters who rejected the treaty in 2005.
But delegates to a "friends of the constitution" meeting held in Madrid yesterday acknowledged that some changes to the draft treaty would have to be made.
"Spain would be in favour of seeking a consensus more on the basis of complementing the treaty than of carving it up," said Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who hosted the meeting.
He said a new extended text could include provisions on enlargement criteria, immigration, energy, climate change, defence policy and an EU social space. "We have met here to have our voice heard. Because it cannot be simply ignored that 18 countries ratified this constitution and some of them even after the negative outcome of referendums in France and the Netherlands," Mr Moratinos added.
The meeting included senior representatives from the 18 states that have ratified it plus Ireland and Portugal, who strongly support the constitution. However, the non-participation of France, the Netherlands and Britain raised fears of divisions within the EU.
European diplomats warned this week the meeting could further entrench positions on the constitution and ran the risk of derailing Germany's attempt find a compromise acceptable to all 27 EU members during its presidency of the union.
European affairs minister Noel Treacy, who attended the meeting in Madrid, rejected this criticism, noting that the participants had all pledged their full support to Berlin.
A communique published after the discussions in Madrid noted that participants wanted a "political Europe that plays a key role in this globalised world . . . as set out in the constitutional treaty". It notes that the participants are ready to listen, and with a constructive spirit, to the proposals of other member states.
This week Germany began its attempt to find a solution to the constitutional issue by inviting diplomats from all 27 EU states to secret bilateral talks in Berlin. This is scheduled to continue until June when Berlin will present a detailed timetable on the way forward.