Prodi: ‘decide now’

Date: 11/12/03

ROMANO Prodi, the European Commission president, has urged the EU's heads of state and government to avoid the final negotiations on the Union's historic constitution ending up in "unseemly horse trading".

In a strong eve-of-summit message, Prodi told European Voice that "no leftovers should be accepted after the Brussels summit". He is sending a letter to the EU government leaders calling for all major decisions to be taken now, even though, for the sake of a compromise, some could be implemented a few years later. "Decisions must not be postponed," Prodi's letter to his fellow leaders will state.

The Commission's president warned against compromises that would harm the EU's ability to adopt laws, and function efficiently, as part of a deal with Spain and Poland on the voting system in the Council of Ministers.

"We cannot support proposals that would raise the level of the majority [necessary for decisions in the Council to be made] above the Nice Treaty level," he said.

Report of comments by the European Commission President, Romano Prodi, on the eve of the European Council, Brussels, 12-13 December 2003.