Spanje bereid te onderhandelen over stemmenweging Raad (en)

Spain, a fierce negotiator in the on-going talks to finalise the EU Constitution, has come up with a compromise on one of the most sensitive issues, the Spanish Daily El Pais reported today.

According to the newspaper, Madrid would consider a new deal on the voting system in the Constitution.

It has proposed a system whereby decisions would need to be approved by a majority of countries representing at least 66 percent of the EU population, rather than 60 percent as proposed in the current draft.

This vote weighting would make it easier for the medium-sized country to achieve a veto.

Under the simplified voting system currently envisioned in the draft Constitution, it would be virtually impossible for Madrid to block a decision without the support of one or two of the big countries.

Up until now, Spain along with Poland, has been fiercely opposed to abandoning the terms of the Nice Treaty - which gives the two countries very beneficial voting weights in the Council of Ministers.

The new voting system, over which the intergovernmental talks on the Constitution could fail, has yet to be formally discussed by governments.