Ireland's turn at EU presidency begins

Ireland took over the rotating presidency of the European Union on Thursday, and with it the thorny issue of the first constitutional treaty for the bloc that will grow to 25 nations this spring.

To mark the handover, the European and Irish flags were to be raised together at Dublin Castle, in the heart of the Irish capital, at midday in the presence of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and other dignitaries.

The spotlight will return to Dublin Castle next Tuesday when European Commission President Romano Prodi and his team meet Ahern and his cabinet ministers to discuss the tasks ahead.

In an interview with AFP, Ahern said he hoped to make some progress on the constitution over the next six months, after EU leaders failed at their December 12-13 summit in Brussels to agree its contents.

"If colleagues want to move forward, the Irish presidency is willing to put in whatever effort and energy is necessary to do so," the taoiseach -- as Ireland's head of government is called -- said.

The main stumbling block is voting rights, with Spain and newcomer Poland determined to hang onto the disproportionate voting muscle at lawmaking EU ministerial meetings which they won under the Nice EU treaty of 2000.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had hoped to seal the constitution -- based on the work of a year-long Convention on the Future of Europe -- before Rome turned the EU helm over to Dublin.

The Netherlands is next in line after Ireland to assume the agenda-setting presidency, on July 1, amid expectations among many EU watchers that the constitutional headache will remain unresolved at least into 2005.

Besides the constitution, the Irish presidency will oversee the completion of the European Union's historic enlargement into eastern European and the Mediterranean on May 1.

Ten new member states will be coming on board, from the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, through Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia and on down through Malta and Cyprus.

Ireland plans to mark the occasion with a big "day of welcomes" in Dublin and 10 other cities on May 1, an event that might also generate interest in EU-wide elections for a new European Parliament in June.

Ireland, which has become an economic dynamo since joining the European Union 30 years ago, is also aiming to help patch up transatlantic relations -- badly strained by the Iraq war -- by hosting an EU-US summit.

It could take place in June, when US President George W. Bush will be in Europe for a NATO summit in Istanbul and the 60th anniversary of D-Day in France, but the White House has yet to confirm a date.

Other key dates on the jam-packed Irish presidency calendar include an EU-Latin American and Caribbean summit in Mexico in May, co-hosted by Ahern and Mexican President Vincente Fox.

The two major EU summits, chaired by Ahern, and both in Brussels, will be on March 25-26 and June 17-18.