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EU to hold first inter-governmental conference on new treaty on July 23 |
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08:20, July 06, 2007 |
The European Union (EU) will hold its first Inter-Governmental Conference on the new EU treaty on July 23, an EU official said on Thursday.
Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is to host the conference at the same time as the EU foreign ministers' meeting.
On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski claimed he received verbal assurances at the EU summit last month that contested EU decisions could be delayed for two years.
This move threatened to shake the agreement reached at the EU summit on the mandate to launch IGC talks over the treaty.
European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenburger said it was for the EU presidency, not the commission, to respond to the move, adding that the EC would give its formal position on the IGC on July 10.
Earlier this week, EC President Jose Manuel Barroso said: "We can't do anything which contradicts what was agreed at the European Council."
The European Parliament (EP) will adopt its opinion on the IGC on July 11.
A draft opinion by German EP member Jo Leinen, chairman of the EP constitutional affairs committee, welcomes the fact that the mandate for the IGC agreed at the summit "safeguards the substance of the constitutional treaty."
European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering said on Thursday Kaczynski's interpretation of the agreement at the EU summit seemed to be based on a "misunderstanding."
"I think this is a misunderstanding. I can't imagine that the European leaders could accept the use of a veto within the European Council for two years," said Pottering.
Kaczynski on Wednesday claimed the two-year period had "mysteriously vanished" from the text and called it a "technical error."
Pottering said the blocking rules should "remain as they are written in the draft."
"Freezing a decision in order to bring about a satisfactory solution after a 'reasonable delay' can take a few months, not two years," he insisted.
According to the schedule of the EU presidency Portugal, the EU hopes to finalize the text of the new EU treaty at an EU summit on October 18.
Source: Xinhua
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