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EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Just five days before the formal start of talks to finalise the draft Constitution, member states have shown that they are as divided as ever on the fundamental issues.

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers yesterday (29 September), several countries firmly staked out their position ahead of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on Saturday.

Poland, the largest newcomer to the EU next year, reiterated its strong opposition to the proposed changes to the voting weights in the Council.

Currently, their 'voting weight' equals that of a large country, but under the new treaty their voting strength would be reduced to that of a medium-sized country. The same will happen to Spain, Warsaw's staunchest ally on this matter.

Austria's Benita Ferrero Waldner demanded that each country have its own commissioner with equal voting rights - something not foreseen in the current draft.

Questions were also raised by Finland and Poland about how to present proposals to the IGC; they feared that they would not be able to raise certain issues.

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said afterwards in a press conference that any issue could be raised during the IGC.

Meanwhile, France, Germany and Italy repeated their by now well-known position that the compromise achieved by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Convention should not be re-opened.

Joschka Fischer, Germany' foreign minister, told his colleagues that whoever unravelled the treaty would then have to bear responsibility for it - "whoever opens it must close it again", he said.

The Member States' grim determination caught Italy - the current holder of the EU presidency - by surprise, a council source told the EUobserver.

The Presidency had been expecting a mere procedural formality, where, according to current treaty requirements (Art. 48), it would just confirm 4 October as the opening date of the IGC, after obtaining the required opinions from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Central Bank.

Mr Frattini insisted there had been "no discussion on the substantial issues".

He later added that if no agreement is reached at the IGC there will be "a crisis in European ideals".