Exhausted leaders finally strike deal: The EU is ready for enlargement

Some threatened walkouts

Some countries at times threatened to walk out of the talks and wreck the summit as they rejected a constant stream of new negotiating proposals from the French, the summit hosts as current holders of the rotating EU presidency.

The last country to hold out was Belgium, which had been objecting to the Netherlands, with five million more inhabitants, having one vote more. But several of the smaller countries including Portugal, Finland, Austria and Sweden had battled long and hard on the plans to re-weight national votes in the Council of Ministers.

In the end the leaders settled for the Big Four countries, France, Germany, Italy and the UK having 29 weighted votes each. Spain got 27 and the Netherlands 13.

Greece, Belgium and Portugal were allotted 12 each, with 10 apiece for Sweden and Austria. Denmark, Finland and Ireland were on 7, with Luxembourg on 4.

Going into the fifth day made the Nice summit the longest ever session attended by EU leaders. The meeting was tasked with solving the problems which EU leaders failed to crack in Amsterdam three years ago.

Summit came close to breakdown

To avoid a paralysis of decision-making when the EU expands the leaders needed to agree plans to adjust national voting weights, trim the size of the European Commission , the EU executive, and to scrap national vetoes in many more policy areas.

At times it came close to breakdown as countries ignored appeals to "think European" and battled to protect their national interests. Diplomats reckoned the summit had in the end achieved about 60 per cent of its the ambitious aims but the Commission reforms will be delayed several years.

More than 30 policy areas will move to qualified majority voting with an end to national vetoes. But those vetoes will still apply in some key areas including tax and social security, on which the United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to budge.

The European Parliament has been expanded way beyond the target ceiling as affronted nations were given consolation prizes or more members.

Germans did not press claim for more votes

The European Commission, the EU executive, will from 2005 consist of one commissioner from each member state.(There could be 21 EU countries by then and currently France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain have two).

But only when the Union reaches 27 states will there be a slimming down, with countries from then on rotating in their membership.

The Commission President will though have new "hire and fire" powers to conduct reshuffles among his team of national commissioners.

On the weighting of national votes, Germany agreed not to press a claim for for extra votes to reflect its 20 million larger population but wins greater representation in the European Parliament.

Treaty may yet face more problems

Germany and Italy also have their way in the setting up of a new Inter Governmental Conference in 2004 to define relations between the EU institutions and the member states.

The negotiations were fractious. Small countries complained of bullying and partiality from the French Presidency and President Chirac clashed sharply with Commission President Romano Prodi.

Even though a deal has finally been agreed in Nice the treaty may yet face further problems. Elmar Brok, the European Parliament monitor on EU reform, said that it would be very difficult to get the Parliament to agree the treaty as it must for it to become law.