By DPA
Lisbon : European Union (EU) leaders have clinched a final deal on a major overhaul of the 27-member bloc after making key concessions to Italy and Poland.
The agreement on the Reform Treaty, reached late Thursday by prime ministers and heads of state after hours of wrangling in Lisbon, should put an end to a prolonged institutional debate sparked by voters in France and the Netherlands, who in a 2005 referendum rejected a European constitution.
“This is a victory for Europe. We are getting out of a blind alley. We no longer have an institutional crisis,” said Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, who as holder of the EU rotating presidency was acting as the meeting’s host.
The treaty is designed to streamline the EU’s decision-making process following its ‘big bang’ expansion of 2004, which welcomed 10 new member states into the 50-year-old organisation.
It is also set to improve the EU’s global diplomatic clout by simplifying the way it relates with international partners.
“This is a historic agreement. Now Europe can defend its interests in the age of globalisation,” said a visibly pleased Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the EU’s executive arm, the Commission.
The text is now due to be signed on Dec 13 in the Portuguese capital by EU prime ministers and heads of state and will thereafter come to be known as the Lisbon Treaty.
Once officially sealed, it will need to be ratified by all member states, by either parliamentary votes or referendums – meaning its implementation is far from assured.
EU officials are nevertheless hopeful that the ratification process will be completed by spring 2009, when European Parliament elections are scheduled.
“This is a good treaty for the Union,” said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU’s longest-serving leader.
The impasse was resolved after leaders agreed to give in to demands from Poland and Italy.
Poland, the most vocal critic of the proposed treaty before the talks, received assurances that a procedure allowing outvoted states to stall EU laws would be enshrined in the treaty.
“Poland got what it wanted. The EU reform treaty project is now crowned with success,” Polish President Lech Kaczynski said.
Italy, which diplomats described as the hardest bargainer during the meeting, obtained one extra seat in the European Parliament, giving it the same number of lawmakers as Britain.
Under the current system, Italy, France and Britain all have the same number of members in the European Parliament. However, the treaty reduces the overall number of lawmakers by 35 to 750, and parliament last week voted a new distribution giving Italy fewer seats than its similarly sized partners.
Close to midnight, diplomats agreed to give Italy one more seat without breaching the 750-member cap by excluding the non-voting president of the Parliament from the count.
The EU’s two heavyweights, Germany and France, both claimed credit for Thursday’s success.
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was “extremely satisfied” with the result, German Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the role played by her government in launching the final treaty talks in June.
Other tricky issues were successfully addressed earlier in the meeting.
Bulgaria reached a deal allowing it to spell the single currency in Cyrillic as evro rather than euro.
Austria received assurances that moves to limit the number of foreigners attending its universities would not be pursued in the European Court.
Among the treaty’s main innovations are clauses reducing the size of the European Commission and streamlining decisions by changing voting rules and limiting the power of individual member states to veto legislation.