Denmark hopes for early solution to problems surrounding EU constitution

Denmark hopes that the problems stemming from the European Union's constitutional reforms could be solved soon so that the constitution could come into effect in 2009, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Saturday.

At a press conference after talks with Rasmussen, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek also said legal issues left unresolved in the Nice Treaty should be settled before the elections for the European Parliament in 2009.

"We are not making presumptions on whether it is to be done through a new constitutional treaty, a re-negotiated constitutional treaty, or in some other ways," he added.

The Czech Republic accepts the 2009 deadline for reforming how the EU should function but remains to be convinced of the need for a new constitutional treaty, he said.

The target date is mentioned in the Berlin Declaration to be published at the EU's 50th anniversary celebration in the German capital on Sunday.

Topolanek said earlier this week that he was regretful there was not enough pubic discussion on the Berlin Declaration and that the Czech government had not yet received copies of the document.

The Czech government would give its position after it receives the copies of the document, said Topolanek.

The Czech Republic holds different views on many important issues over the EU reforms with the "old" members of the bloc.

The key reforms which most EU members want for the constitution would give it a long-term president and foreign minister, a simpler decision-making mechanism and more say for the European and national parliaments.

The Czech Republic's ruling party Civic Democrats have been arguing for a different voting system giving small countries more power, and they also feel unease about a common foreign policy.

The deadline for the new EU constitution is important for the Czech Republic, as it will hold the rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2009.

Source: Xinhua