What's going on in Brussels?

EU Treaty Coming Under Fire!!!

By Adrian Croft Reuters - Wednesday, June 20 01:12 am LONDON (Reuters) - Divisions over a new European Union treaty deepened on the eve of a crucial summit on Wednesday with Poland and Brussels locked in confrontation and Britain angering its EU partners by making new demands.

An EU diplomat who attended a five-hour meeting of personal representatives of EU leaders on Tuesday said Britain had come in at the last minute with far-reaching demands to water down proposals for a common European foreign and security policy.

The EU already faces a threat from Poland to veto talks on the new treaty unless European leaders agree to discuss a proposal to give Warsaw more voting rights.

EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday with some member states wanting to keep as much as possible of an ambitious EU constitution.

Others, such as Britain, argue the rejection of the charter by Dutch and French voters in 2005 means the EU should pursue only limited changes needed to operate more smoothly.

The EU diplomat said London was demanding that a proposed EU foreign minister, whose job title would be downgraded, should not chair monthly meetings of member states' foreign ministers.

Britain also argued a planned EU foreign service should be entirely inter-governmental and not include the 3,500-strong external services of the European Commission, the EU's executive body, the diplomat said.

Nor would the EU foreign minister be allowed to speak on behalf of the bloc at the United Nations, except with the permission of U.N. Security Council members, such as Britain.

Officials from the EU's German presidency chairing the meeting were angry, saying Prime Minister Tony Blair had never raised these demands at any of his several meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to the diplomat.

Britain had suddenly raised the new conditions in the last few days, on top of demands to remove a charter of fundamental rights from the treaty and its insistence on retaining a national veto on judicial issues, the official said.

"There is a risk that they will go so far that others become exasperated," the diplomat said.

"IN DENIAL"

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett confirmed under questioning from a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday the proposal for an EU diplomatic service "is something that we would want to look at."

Beckett said most of Britain's EU partners had been "in denial" by expecting others to stand by the provisions of the planned EU constitution.

She did not appear to fear the consequences of a collapse of the talks, saying the last few months had shown the EU could function without the new treaty.

Britain's tougher position came as leader-in-waiting Gordon Brown took a greater personal involvement in the talks.

Chancellor Brown, due to become prime minister when Blair steps down on June 27, joined Blair for a telephone conference with new French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday at which Britain made clear its "red lines" in the talks.

Brown -- who some EU officials believe is less enthusiastic than Blair about cooperation with Brussels -- knows that if a deal is done, he will face demands for a referendum on the treaty from the Conservatives and the Eurosceptic press, opposed to Britain ceding further powers to Brussels.

The government is keen to avoid a referendum, fearing Britons would be likely to vote "no".

The European Commission warned Poland on Tuesday it could lose money and support if it blocked a deal to reform EU institutions at the summit, but Warsaw vowed to fight on.

Poland has demanded a change in the voting reform designed to ease decision-making in the enlarged Union, saying the new system would give big states, especially Germany, too much power at Warsaw's expense.

A Polish negotiator said Germany for the first time officially acknowledged in a document circulated on Tuesday that Poland and the Czech Republic both had problems with the proposed voting system.

(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Brussels, Terhi Kinnunen, Punkaharju, Finland, Adam Jasser and Chris Borowski in Warsaw, Andras Gergely in Budapest, Emmanuel Jarry in Paris)