牽手和分手來自同一雙手

At dawn on Saturday they announced a compromise to delay until 2014 a new voting system that reduces Poland's influence - the main stumbling block.

Other proposals envisage a long-term president and a foreign affairs head. 

The new treaty, expected to be finalised later this year, preserves much of the planned EU constitution, which was rejected by voters in 2005.

Having led the negotiations and brokered the compromise, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current EU president, said: "We are very, very satisfied with what we have been able to conclude." 

The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, paid tribute to Ms Merkel and handed her a bunch of flowers.

Mrs Merkel conceded the talks had been hard - with Poland, the UK and the Netherlands each staunchly defending their interests. 

The main obstacle had been Poland's demand to keep its voting power, which is currently almost equal to that of Germany's, even though its population is only half as large. 

The new system - known as a "double majority" - will now be phased-in beginning in 2014 and fully implemented three years later. 

Under this system, a 55% majority of EU countries with at least 65% of the bloc's population will be required for a change to be approved.

Britain and the Netherlands also got what they wanted from the summit. 

"Those were first of all to make it absolutely clear that the charter on fundamental rights was not going to be justiciable in British courts or alter British law." said Tony Blair at the end of his last EU summit as British prime minister.

Mr Blair also wanted to maintain national control over foreign policy, justice and home affairs. 

The Netherlands, too, was satisfied that the role of national parliaments in Europe is to be strengthened and the criteria for new members joining the EU are included in the treaty. 


BBC News

   
    The rejection of the draft constitution by France and the Netherlands was perceived in some EU member states as an expression of the citizens' fear of a European super-state. 

    To remove that fear, the new document to be drafted at an Inter-Governmental Conference (ICG) convening in July will be called a Reform Treaty - sitting alongside other treaties of the EU, but not replacing them.
    
    And it will not mention any state-like symbols, such as the EU flag, the anthem or the motto "Strength in Diversity". 


# VOTING SYSTEM 
    
   The original proposal of the failed constitution for a "double majority" voting system will be incorporated into the new treaty.

   It means decisions will need the support of 55% of member states representing 65% of the EU's population.

   But, to placate Polish fears that the system penalises it to the advantage of large states such as Germany, a compromise was reached to delay the introduction of the new system until 2014, and then gradually phase it in over three years. 

   And the national veto will be maintained in the fields of foreign affairs, defence, fiscal matters, and social security and culture.
 
# EU PRESIDENT
   
   A president to be elected by EU leaders for a two-and-a-half-year term will replace the current system in which EU leaders rotate into the president's post every six months. 

# FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
    
# EU COMMISSION 
   
    From 2014, the EU's executive arm, the Commission, will be reduced in size. There will no longer be a commissioner to represent every member country - but from two-thirds only.

# NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS
   
    The period given to national parliaments to examine draft legislative texts and to give a reasoned opinion on subsidiarity will be extended from six to eight weeks. 

    National parliaments may demand, if a certain threshold is reached, that the European Commission re-examine a draft act they deem to be an encroachment on their national competences. 

    This was a major concern for the Netherlands. 

# REVISING TREATIES AND WITHDRAWAL FROM THE UNION

   The Reform Treaty will have a provision that enshrines the right to revise treaties to increase - but also reduce - the competences conferred upon the EU. 

   And it also will include an article on voluntary withdrawal of a member state from the union. 

EU treaty proposals 


***Personal comments...***

看了這些洋洋灑灑的條約內文，其實給我的感覺還是跟以前一樣，各歐洲國民都還是很擔心自己國家的權益、力量、文化等無形的資產被歐盟這個聯盟稀釋，所以才會有那麼多的"但書"，其中提到一點，假設歐盟制定新的協議，可以先給各國家一段試行的時間，就好像是3C產品的試用期一樣! 實在是太人性化了!

最無言的還是最後那一條...條約隨時可以修訂，且可以選擇性的自願退出歐盟。天啊，那要是哪天大家真的意見不合，這個聯盟不就隨時說解散就解散了?! 感覺像是一艘搖晃不定的郵輪，雖然看似華麗，但卻內藏著許多重大的缺陷...不過話又說回來，若不這樣子制定歐盟條約草案以延續歐盟新憲，恐怕新憲法真的會就這樣無疾而終...

很高興歐盟憲法為了因應荷蘭法國在前年的否決而有了新的面貌，先不論能否順利運作，但至少就如Merkel所說的：「Europe is on the move, and on the move in the right direction.」

即使連歐盟這麼龐大的體系都那麼努力的在想辦法茁壯以擴大在國際上的影響力，而我們台灣這塊福爾摩莎小島呢? 還在為了那些舊意識型態吵的面紅耳赤、為了色彩立場不同而對立、為了本省外省情結而爭論不休，這些絕對是台灣目前最極欲解決的困境，而非外交上的那些打壓，自己人團結起來，還怕外人來欺負嗎?