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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 28, 2004

EP president urges agreement on EU constitution

President of the European Parliament Pat Cox on Jan. 27 urged the governments of Spain and other countries of the European Union (EU) to facilitate an accordon the Constitution for the bloc.


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President of the European Parliament Pat Cox on Jan. 27 urged the governments of Spain and other countries of the European Union (EU) to facilitate an accord on the Constitution for the bloc.

An agreement is necessary after a year of failures, Cox said ata meeting with the Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio.

Cox and Palacio discussed the contents of the draft European Constitution, the membership of new countries, the imminent reform of the European Commission and the next financial perspectives of the EU.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Cox expressed his disappointment over the "incapacity" of the EU Ministers' Council to approve, on Monday, a new pay regime for members of the European Parliament.

The dismissal of the regime, which was the result of a "very long" preparatory process of several years, was a sign of "many failures" the EU currently suffered, Cox said.

He reminded the press that 2003 did not leave "a favorable inheritance" for Europe because it was marked by internal conflicts opened by the Iraq War, the harsh debate on the Europe's Stability Pact and the failure to reach a consensus on the Constitution.

The new draft constitution is designed to make the European Union function more effectively and calls for most decisions to betaken by a "double majority" of more than half member states.

But Spain and Poland rejected the new distribution of power by vote-weighting and have supported the complex agreement drawn up in Nice in 2000.

The talks on the draft EU Constitution failed last December because of divergence in some key issues among the member states such as the voting system.

A spokesman for the European Commission (EC), the EU's executive arm, said earlier the EC hoped the Constitution could be finalized by the end of this year.

Source: Xinhua


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