Prodi fears failure at EU summit

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Commission President Romano Prodi has again expressed pessimism over next week's key meeting of European leaders.

The European Union summit, which is to be held between December 7-9 in Nice, France, is aimed at paving the way for new members to enter the bloc.

Leaders of the 15-nation bloc will discuss reforms designed to speed up EU decision- making ahead of its planned admission of up to a dozen new members from eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region.

But asked on Thursday about the chances of failure, Prodi told a news conference: "They are not small."

He said: "When it comes to talks and negotiations there are all sorts of threads you have to weave together.

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"When it comes to the crunch you have to put it all together. You either make a leap forward or the chances of failure are quite considerable."

His comments come a day after he told EU member states to stop clinging to their right of national veto.

"If the Union is to be effective, the conference has to make significant headway (on qualified majority voting)," Prodi told members of the European Parliament.

He said this should mean extending the so-called "co-decision procedure," which also involves the European Parliament in endorsing a given decision.

"A European Union of 27 states requiring unanimity would end up totally deadlocking the Union in any sector where it is maintained," Prodi said.

Germany, France, Britain and Italy have ten votes each in the council, more than the EU's other 11 members.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told the parliament the Nice summit looked set to back qualified majority voting on around 30 new issues.

But he said these were unlikely to include the five most sensitive areas of policy -- taxation, social security, immigration and asylum, trade in services and disbursement of funds to poorer regions.

France, keen to preserve its distinctive culture amid anglophone globalisation, is the main opponent of qualified majority voting in the field of trade in services.

Prodi said qualified majority voting in areas like taxation -- opposed by Britain, Ireland and several other states -- was vital to allow the EU's internal market to function smoothly.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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