EU Opens Way For Eastward Growth

European Union leaders emerged from an all-night meeting Monday morning with an agreement to overhaul the bloc as it pushes its boundaries eastward, beyond the old Iron Curtain.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel told reporters the leaders had reached a deal that will allow in a dozen newcomers in the years ahead — mostly from Eastern Europe. The summit dragged across five days — including a final session that lasted more than 18 hours.

Smaller members of the bloc had fought hard during the summit to keep a credible say in the bloc once it starts its most ambitious expansion ever by taking in Cyprus, Malta and 10 East European neighbors, probably in 2004 or 2005.

"This is a big day for Europe," said Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson. "We are ready for enlargement."

The leaders endorsed a sweeping overhaul of EU housekeeping rules to ensure that the EU's decision-making capacity is not overwhelmed when new countries join the 43-year-old organization.

They agreed upon more majority voting — rather than unanimity — in decision-making, reshaping the EU's executive arm and allowing the most integration-minded members to move ahead on their own if they wish.

The toughest nut to crack was a reallocation of votes in decision-making ministerial meetings. The issue took up the lion's share of the summit talks and almost caused the meeting to fail.

French President Jacques Chirac, who hosted the summit, spent Sunday juggling numbers to find a power-sharing arrangement acceptable to all, from the EU's four biggest members — Germany, Britain, France and Italy — down to the smallest, Luxembourg.

Portugal — backed by Sweden, Austria, Finland, Belgium and Greece — vetoed one proposal in protest of a wide gap between its votes and those for neighboring Spain. That veto threw the summit into crisis, forcing Chirac back to the drawing board. He returned with new figures that got a warmer reception.

At the heart of the power-sharing dispute was whether votes in the EU should be doled out according to population. That touched on disagreements over democracy, power politics and — above all — historical rivalries among European nations.

For example, the Portuguese said they vetoed the earlier power-sharing deal because they believed it jeopardized their 800-year struggle to maintain a distinct national identity on the Iberian Peninsula from Spain. Under that deal, Portugal had 11 votes while Spain had 28.

Under the formula that was adopted, Germany, Britain, France and Italy will have 29 votes each in the EU's policy-setting council; Spain, 27 votes and the Netherlands, 13. Greece, Belgium and Portugal will each have 12; Sweden and Austria, 10; Denmark, Finland and Ireland, seven; Luxembourg, four. Those are current members in the 15-nation bloc.

The breakdown for the candidate countries was: Poland, 28; Romania, 14; Czech Republic and Hungary, 11; Bulgaria, nin; Slovakia, seven; Lithuania, seven; Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta, three.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhostadt stood up for the right of small countries to get more votes.

"We wanted more Europe, not less Europe," he told reporters.

During the summit, the leaders labored in the knowledge that failure could derail plans to admit up to a dozen nations into the EU in the years ahead.

The summit also yielded agreement on these points:

• Limiting the size of the European Commission, with big member states giving up their second seat on the EU's executive body by 2005. Once there are 27 member nations, there will be unspecified further cuts in commission posts as nations take turns serving on the body.

• Replacing unanimity voting by majority voting in some trade areas. Sensitive areas such as immigration, social security and indirect taxes will remain subject to unanimous approval.

• Setting rules making it easier for integration enthusiasts to move ahead on their own.

• Provisions to facilitate enhanced defense cooperation.