EU treaty, part deux

This week will see renewed attempts to agree on a text for the ill-fated EU treaty.  But the awkward squad's ranks seem to have swelled since last time round.

Legal experts of all 27 member states have already approved the revised treaty document. But Poland will not accept the treaty in its current form: Warsaw demands to have a decision blocking mechanism written into the treaty, instead of including it in an attached declaration, giving it no legal status. Other countries will take advantage of Poland's recalcitrance to air their own complaints.

The awkward squad

• Ireland has now secured opt-outs from police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, even though it did not object to it in the original text. 
• Austria is contemplating opening a discussion about the free movement of people, as it wants to limit the growing influx of German students to its medical schools. 
• France is keen to have the European Central Bank written into the new treaty; a move opposed by most governments, which do not want to see this institution become politicised.
• The UK and Danish delegations will be keen to minimise amendments to current EU laws in order to reduce public and opposition calls for a referendum on the new treaty.
• Italy is unhappy with the proposed distribution of seats in the European Parliament.
• European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso voiced concern that the new treaty will sideline his institution.

Even though EU leaders are likely to find a compromise next week, it will not quite spell the end of the treaty saga.  Only once it has been ratified by all member states, via referendum or parliamentary approval, can it come into force.

Yet achieving national ratification by 2009 -- as planned by EU leaders -- will prove even more challenging than getting a compromise out of 27 tough negotiators next week.