European Union leaders are likely to agree this week to revive stalled talks on a constitution for the bloc and may set June 30 as a deadline for an agreement, diplomats said.
Prospects for a deal have improved greatly with the election of a new, more pro-European government in Spain and signals of compromise from Poland and Germany on the core issue of member states' voting power, which caused a breakdown last December.
"The European constitution can be approved in the short term if we regain political cohesion. The sharing of power and money, to speak in very concrete terms, will be much easier to achieve," incoming Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an interview with Sunday's El Pais.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will make a recommendation to an EU summit on Thursday after three months of intensive soundings. He will meet the leaders of France, Britain and Spain on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visits Warsaw on Tuesday.
Ahern, whose modest, workmanlike approach has won praise in contrast to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's handling of the aborted December summit, has warned that a lengthy delay would only make things harder. But he is also acutely aware the EU cannot afford a second failure just as it enlarges from 15 to 25 states on May 1.
"I read Ahern as signalling he wants a June 30 deadline," one EU ambassador said. "It's likely he can get that." Ireland hands over the EU presidency to the Netherlands on July 1.
"The Madrid bombings have shown we need the constitution to fight terrorism," the ambassador said. EU leaders are set to anticipate the new charter by invoking a mutual assistance clause in case of terrorist attacks to support Spain before the constitution is agreed or ratified.
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