EU Determined to Approve Institutional Reforms: ChiracFrench President Jacques Chirac said in Biarritz, France, Saturday that European Union (EU) member countries are determined to secure a substantial agreement on the EU institutional reforms at their next summit in Nice in December.At a press conference to close the EU informal summit held here since Friday, Chirac said that all the heads of state and government of the 15 EU countries have agreed to "fix a high-level ambition for a treaty of Nice." Institutional reforms are indispensable for the EU's future enlargement. The EU institutions were established in the 1980s when the European Community, the predecessor of the EU, had only around 10 members. They are now considered outdated. Chirac said that the EU leaders are close to consensus on the organization's future voting system. According to him, negotiations have just begun on the reform of the makeup of the European Commission, the EU's executive body, and on a redistribution of the number of votes to be owned by each member country in the EU Council of General Affairs, which sets EU policy. Some smaller EU countries are worried that a redistribution of votes will render the bigger ones stronger influence within the EU body at the expense of themselves. However, Chirac said that there should not be a big gap in the voting power. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |