European leaders yesterday signed the EU's first Constitution, which is designed to give the union a sharper international profile and speed up decision-making in a club now embracing 25 nations.
The treaty was the result of 28 months of sometimes acrimonious debate between the 25 EU governments and now faces ratification in national parliaments.
At least nine EU nations also plan to put it to a referendum, increasing chances that it may not take effect in 2007 as scheduled.
A "no" result in any country would stop the Constitution in its tracks.
The EU leaders signed the document at the Campidoglio, a Michaelangelo-designed complex of buildings on Rome's Capitoline Hill, along with the leaders of Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Croatia -- four candidates for EU membership.
The event was overshadowed by a spat over the makeup of the next EU executive that stems from misgivings about a conservative Italian nominee.
On the margins of the signing, the leaders sought to resolve the dispute over Rocco Buttiglione, the incoming EU justice commissioner, who is opposed by a large segment of the 732-member European Parliament.
The conservative Catholic and papal confidant has raised concerns by saying he believed homosexuality is a sin and that women are better off married and at home.
The Constitution foresees sim-pler voting rules to end decision gridlock in a club that ballooned to 25 members this year and plans to absorb half a dozen more in the years ahead.
It includes new powers for the European Parliament and ends national vetoes in 45 new policy areas -- including judicial and police cooperation, education and economic policy -- but not in foreign and defense policy, social security, taxation or cultural matters.
The constitution was signed in the sala degli Orazi e Curiazi, the same spectacular hall in a Renaissance palazzo where in 1957 six nations -- Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg -- signed the union's founding treaty.
EU leaders signed the Constitution in alphabetical order by country, led by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
RSS