Jun 23, 3:20 PM EDT

*EU Overcomes Divisions in New Rome Treaty*

By AOIFE WHITE
Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- European Union leaders agreed Saturday on the
key points of a treaty meant to strengthen the bloc's foreign policy
role and eliminate unwieldy bureaucracy.

The treaty would replace the constitution that Dutch and French voters
rejected two years ago. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit
host, said the drafting of the treaty would begin soon and all countries
should ratify it by June 2009.

It would allow more decisions to be taken by a majority, rather than
unanimous, vote, removing the threat of national vetoes. The European
Parliament and national assemblies would get more say over
decision-making, strengthening the EU's democratic credentials. The EU's
executive arm - the European Commission - would be trimmed from 27 to 17
seats. The post of EU president - with a maximum term of five years -
will be created to replace the system of rotating national leaders into
the job. And the role of EU foreign policy chief will be strengthened,
to give Europe a bigger voice in the world.

"This deal gives us a chance to move on," British Prime Minister Tony
Blair said.

European leaders said the expected new treaty will allow the EU to
tackle the institutional gridlock threatened by its larger membership,
which recently grew by 12 nations.

"We have achieved what we set out to do," Merkel said. "This shows that
Europe came together at the end."

The EU, with 27 member nations, now represents 490 million people.

The new treaty is meant to allow the bloc to react more quickly to
global crises, although it still requires agreement among members. That
was impossible when the EU split on the eve of the Iraq war.

Charles Grant of the Center for European Reform, a London-based think
tank, says that under the new treaty neither the new EU president nor
the foreign policy chief - to be known as a High Representative - will
have any executive power.

"Their authority would depend on their powers of persuasion and the
force of their personality," he said.

The 30 hours of tough negotiations were overshadowed by Poland's
insistence that Germany accept its demand that Poland get EU voting
powers disproportionate to its size because of its heavy loss of life
during World War II.

The deal finally agreed sees the switch to a new voting system based on
population entering into force in 2014, with extra safeguards in place
for Poland until 2017.

"This is a success for Poland," Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski
said in Warsaw, adding the EU summit agreement had left the country in a
"strong position."

Britain, too, claimed success, winning opt-outs on EU social and labor
rights that it feared would hurt jobs, and limiting the scope of EU
powers in justice and police issues.

Critics said, however, that Blair ceded ground elsewhere - notably on
French demands that open business competition not appear as one of the
EU's guiding principles.

Merkel had made it a priority of her country's six-month EU presidency
to come up with a viable plan to replace the defunct charter, and had
sought to salvage key parts of it aimed at streamlining EU decision
making, including overhauling the unwieldy EU voting system and giving
the EU more power in policing.

She said she was happy leaders were able to keep key parts of the
previous charter alive, despite the often deep and acrimonious divisions
that tested the bloc's unity.

"What this means for us is that we are moving out of stoppage," she
said. "We managed to get all 27 states on board in the end."