The negotiations have made little progress
Published:
3 December 2003 y., Wednesday
With two weeks to go - and not a deal in sight - EU foreign ministers open two days of talks Friday to sort out disagreements on a European Union constitution designed to keep the bloc manageable as it takes in 10 new members next May.
Ahead of the talks, officials said prospects for a deal were slim and some said the talks were on "the brink of failure." At the EU head office in Brussels, Belgium, officials complain Italy, which chairs the negotiations that began in early October, has let EU governments endlessly state their views on the charter without pushing for a compromise.
"There has been the setting out of different national positions one next to the other," EU Commission spokesman Stefaan De Rynck said. "This is taking the (constitutional) conference to the brink of failure."
The plan is for the EU leaders to endorse the draft constitution at a Dec. 12-13 summit meeting in Brussels.
The constitution, which is meant to streamline the running of the EU, would then be ratified by the parliaments of the 15 EU states and those of the 10 newcomers that join on May 1. Several EU countries plan referendums.
Šaltinis:
cnews.canoe.ca
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
On 9 August, Daiva Valerija Čekanauskas-Navarrette started her duties as the new Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in the United States.
more »
On 10 August in Washington, Lithuania’s Ambassador Žygimantas Pavilionis presented his credentials to President of the United States of America Barack Obama.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs sent letters of condolences to his Russian counterpart S. Lavrov and Minister of Transport, co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Lithuanian-Russian Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Humanitarian and Cultural Cooperation I. Levitin, expressing his condolences regarding the victims of violent forest fires in Russia.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations on behalf of herself and the people of Lithuania to the President of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, on Macedonia's national holiday, the Day of the Republic.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations on behalf of herself and the people of Lithuania to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss National Day.
more »
On 29 July in Vilnius, at a convention of country chairmen of the Lithuanian World Community and the Lithuanian Youth Union, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis invited world Lithuanians to engage actively in the discussion on the strategy of “Global Lithuania”.
more »
On 27 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis sent a letter to Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade Össur Skarphéðinsson congratulating Iceland on the start of EU membership negotiations.
more »
On 26 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis sent a letter to Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressing his condolences to the families and relatives of the victims , who died during a techno music festival in Duisburg.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė received letters of credence from Mr. Nguyen Hoang as the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Mr. Deepak Vohra as the Ambassador of the Republic of India.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė received Eastern European political business and public women leaders.
more »