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EU takes another try at constitution

BRUSSELS, May 10 (UPI) -- The next draft of a European constitution is likely to be an amendment to the treaties that set up the European Union.

German diplomats told the EU Observer that they hope to get political questions decided before the EU summit scheduled for June 21 and June 22. That would leave technical questions to be decided by a constitutional meeting.

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In 2005, voters in France and the Netherlands rejected a constitution that would have replaced the 1957 Treaty of Rome and the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht.

The big issues are voting rights, including how votes in member countries would be weighted, and under what circumstances member states would have a veto. Many smaller countries would have less of a voice under proposed weighting changes.

"We will not accept the voting system proposed in the current project. For Poland this is a crucial question," Polish Prime Minister Lech Kaczynski told the French newspaper Le Monde.

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