Ahern reaction: Ireland will be excluded from talks on the European constitution between a group of EU member states in early January.
However, yesterday in Brussels Taoiseach Bertie Ahern insisted that Ireland wanted to be involved from the start in efforts to free the constitution logjam. Spain and Luxembourg have invited the 18 EU countries that have so far ratified the constitution to a meeting in Madrid in January. A second invitation to other member states to a meeting in Luxembourg in February was extended late on Thursday.
Ireland has not yet ratified the constitution even though the Government supports it.
"We would want to be part of that group. We would see ourselves as being part of that pro-constitution group," Mr Ahern said. He hoped Spain and Luxembourg would invite "countries who have ratified and countries who support ratification when it is clear what we are going to ratify".
However, a spokesman for the Spanish EU permanent representation, Agustín Galán, said the letter from the Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, was "clear" that the invitation to the first meeting in Madrid on January 26th is only for those countries that have ratified the constitution.
The incoming German EU presidency, which takes up the reins from January, will invite European Affairs ministers, including Ireland's Minister of State Noel Treacy, for separate talks to narrow differences over the issue.
Mr Ahern said: "There is growing support in recent months for the constitution. The pro-group for the constitution are certainly back in the driving seat. It will not be just as it is. There will be some changes, but I think the idea that it will be totally changed and redrafted into a smaller document [ that] people are not wearing that.
"There are close to 20 countries who are strongly of the view that we should keep it as close to where it was. It won't be the same, I appreciate that.
"It won't be possible to put it back into the same form. The German presidency's job will be to narrow down exactly what it is in terms of protocols that people want, what has to come out to get agreement and what way we can reform it. By mid-year we will be in that position and then I suppose it will take another year in my view to sort things out," he said.
Meanwhile, the European Commission and the outgoing Finnish presidency have abandoned efforts to force an end to member states' veto on justice issues by introducing majority voting. "Yes, sometimes it takes people longer to see the light than it should, but I think that they have finally seen it," Mr Ahern said.
He supported the decision to suspend part of the EU's membership negotiations with Turkey, as a penalty for failing to open up its ports and airports to Cyprus.
Future EU enlargement, he said, would be much more difficult than it had been: "Enlargement is going to have to be sold in the member countries far more than it was in the past where it tended to be dealt with [ in Brussels] and it was a more diplomatic exercise."
