BROAD agreement has emerged between EU states to incorporate for the first time the costs of actions in common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and in justice and home affairs (JHA) into the main EU budget.
The consensus emerging from ministers' representatives at the treaty changing Inter Governmental Conference (IGC) yesterday reflects a determination by member states to strengthen what are seen as underdeveloped spheres of EU activity.
But the chairman of the group, the Tanaiste, Mr Spring's personal representative, Mr Noel Dorr, made clear that the treaty change would exclude the costs of military operations.
The personal representatives tackled three broad themes over the last two days of meetings here the reform of the institutions, the EU budget and the relationship of national parliaments with the EU.
Mr Dorr acknowledged the difficulty of getting agreement on such controversial questions as the number of commissioners and the weighting of national votes in the Council of Ministers.
A combined deal on the two issues, balancing the interests of large and small states, is likely to be one of the last deals struck by the Dutch presidency next year. However, he reported progress on "co-decision", the system of shared legislative authority between ministers and MEPs.
More problematic is the issue of the extension of qualified majority voting (QMV) or less unanimity voting into new areas. The Irish presidency has circulated a questionnaire to the member states listing some 50 activities where unanimity voting applies and asking would they consider the extension of QMV to these areas.
Although Mr Dorr stresses the exercise is merely an informal sounding some member states are understood to be reluctant to show their hands at this stage and some of the larger states will only accept such changes if there is a rebalancing of voting strengths in the Council.
The controversial nature of many of these decisions, the extent to which they impinge on national sovereignty and are susceptible to trade offs, make the institutional debate the thorniest and most political of the lot.
The group also recognised the need to involve national parliamentarians more in the decision making of the EU.
