Ierland wil geen Grondwet-scherven na 1 januari (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ireland has expressed strong reservations about talks on the Constitution spilling into its Presidency which begins in a little over two weeks.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern rejected statements by the Italian Presidency that if the talks do not conclude then the matter will simply be handed on to Dublin.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's Prime Minister, said earlier on Friday (12 December) at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, that the next Presidency "won't have to open" all of the agreed solutions.

He said all that was left on the table were essentially two issues: the composition of the Commission and the new voting system.

Mr Ahern, as future head of the EU for the first six months of 2004, was of a different opinion. "There's not only two issues", he protested adding that "there's certainly about ten".

Speaking about leaving some issues for Dublin to take care of, the Taoiseach said, "in my view it would be impossible to deal with it in this way".

He added that over the Christmas period "people will open up other issues".

Mr Ahern said that from his talks with other Prime Ministers he felt that "people would rather conclude it [over this weekend]" and said for himself, "I favour staying at this".

Whether to postpone some issues into the Irish Presidency has gained some momentum as an idea as several leaders including French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin have also spoken about taking time for negotiations.

However, others feel that these difficult issues, which basically concern the balance of power in a future EU, will not get any easier by putting them off.

"I see no reason to believe that some of the more difficult issues that we face will suddenly become easier in the New Year. It is not as if those issues are new or require further debate. They now require concentrated attention to reach solutions", said European Parliament President Pat Cox.