Belgium proposes revising EU treaties by majority vote

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht on Tuesday said that a qualified majority, rather than a unanimous vote, should in future be enough to revise the treaties that underpin the European Union.

With efforts to adopt a new EU constitution stalled, De Gucht proposed calling an intergovernmental conference with the sole aim of finding a viable way of revising the international treaties that form the legal basis of the EU, which were last modified at a 2000 summit in Nice.

In the highly probable event that the bloc's constitution, which has to be ratified by all 25 member states to take effect, fails to gain unanimous support, such a conference could be held in 2008.

In a speech at Warsaw University, De Gucht said the revision proposed by the intergovernmental conference should then be submitted for approval by EU members in 2009, the year European Parliament elections are due to be held.

"What that would definitely do is to spice up those elections," he said.

De Gucht argued that the existing procedure for modifying EU treaties is "a recipe for immobility".

"This is unacceptable," he added. "We need to move towards a rule where a treaty change can happen if a large majority of member states, representing a large majority of the people of the union, has given its consent.

"Countries belonging to the rejecting minority would, of course, have the right to opt out. Equally clearly, moving to this new rule can only occur on the basis of the current requirement of unanimity."

The EU constitution was dealt a body blow after rejections by voters in EU founder members France and the Netherlands last year.

The constitution is aimed at setting new ground rules and streamlining decision-making in the EU, which swelled to 25 members when 10 newcomers joined in May 2004.