EU urged not to cut bits out of Constitution

Spain called on the EU yesterday not to chop bits out of the EU constitution but conceded Germany faced a near "mission impossible" to resurrect the moribund treaty before the end of its presidency in June.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, holder of the six-month EU presidency, wants to breathe new life into the stalled treaty and plans intense bilateral talks with other EU leaders at the end of May, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

"(It's) nearly Mission Impossible," Spanish European Affairs Minister Alberto Navarro said at a news conference following a meeting of the 18 EU member states who ratified the treaty rejected by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005.

Ms Merkel aims to present a plan by the end of Germany's presidency in June for resolving the deadlock on the treaty aimed at streamlining the operations of the fast-growing bloc.

But she is running out of time. French elections in May give her only a few weeks to clarify the position of President Jacques Chirac's successor before preparing a declaration.

Spain, one of only two states to have voted "yes" to the constitution by referendum (the other is Luxembourg), expressed frustration with a lack of suggestions on how to move the project forward from countries who have not ratified the treaty.

"We'd like to know what parts of this Europe (outlined in the treaty) the other member states do not like. What improvements do we have to make to be able to finally reach an agreement between the 27?" said Spanish European Affairs Minister Alberto Navarro.

Earlier Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos had pleaded with the EU not to chop bits out of the existing treaty in an attempt to revive it.

"Is the only way out of the constitutional impasse the wholesale dismantling of the constitutional treaty? By cutting it into little pieces?" he said.

No better charter for the future of Europe has been put forward than the existing document, he told representatives from the 18 member states that have ratified the treaty, plus Portugal and Ireland which have not.

But Britain has said it wants any fresh attempt at an EU constitution to be as simple a document as possible.

The charter would have created an EU foreign ministry and scrapped national vetoes in some areas to cope with the bloc's eastern expansion to 27 states and possible future enlargement.

Two thirds of the 27 member states have ratified the treaty. They are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.