EU foreign ministers gather in Luxembourg for key treaty talks

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) welcomes Poland's President Lech Kaczynski (L) and Poland's Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga at Meseberg in Germany.

LUXEMBOURG, Jun 17 (AFP): European foreign ministers Sunday begin a frantic week of diplomatic talks aimed at reaching agreement on the path towards a new EU treaty to replace the bloc's failed constitution.
At their evening meeting in Luxembourg they will have in front of them copies of a German report on the state of play in the treaty negotiations, setting out bones of contention, such as inclusion of the EU charter of fundamental rights and use of the very word 'constitution'.
On Monday they will turn their attention to the gamut of international affairs, with violence-wracked Gaza rocketing up the agenda.
The German EU presidency's report on months of treaty talks with its EU partners notably steered clear of one of the most contentious issues -- the future voting system.
The new treaty is being drawn up to replace the original grander constitution, rejected two years ago by voters in France and the Netherlands.
The German document proposes "a return to the classical method of treaty change."
The new treaty would therefore be a "reform treaty" amending existing ones, rather than an overarching one to replace them, and help avoid the need for referendums in several countries.
However, some of the proposed language, such as the idea of the EU as a "single legal personality" could still raise eurosceptic hackles.
The foreign ministers' meeting is a precursor to a summit starting in Brussels Thursday.
There German Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes to push forward the process towards a new treaty to revitalise the creaking institutions of a Union which has grown from 15 to 27 member states since 2004.
She has been keeping up a blistering timetable of meetings with her fellow EU leaders and Saturday hosted Polish President Lech Kaczynski at a castle in Meseberg outside Berlin.
Poland and Britain, for differing reasons, are seen as leading the opposition to Merkel's blueprint.
"Merkel's balancing act is a very tricky one," said one EU diplomat. "If she gives too much ground then she risks losing the others," meaning the 18 member states which ratified the original constitution in good faith.
Warsaw has threatened to veto the talks on a new text because it believes it will lose clout under the proposed new voting system.
Poland wants the number of votes a country has in decisions affecting the entire EU to be based on the square root of the country's population and argues that the double majority method that Germany favours would give large countries too much influence.