Ahern stalks compromise on EU constitution

A constitution for the EU must be signed by all the 25 members - according to Bertie Ahern, prime minister of the EU's current presiding nation Ireland. He is consulting all the capitals. After Lisbon he was in Madrid. He has also suggested not reducing the size of the European Commission for the moment. "Our proposal is that we should stick with one commissioner per member state for the foreseeable future, and as the council gets larger we should then move to a smaller commission based on equal rotation." In this case each EU country would retain one member until 2014. Diplomats say the main point of contention in the constitutional negotiations might be resolved by raising the proportions of member states and population needed to take most decisions - from 50/60% to 55/65%. The new Spanish socialist prime minister Rodriguez Zapatero said his government wanted a constitutional accord and had confidence in the Irish presidency. 'We will find a solution within the boundaries of what you've been hearing recently.' EU foreign ministers resume the negotiations on Monday. EU leaders have agreed to try to conclude them at a summit on June 17-18.