An Inter-Governmental Conference to amend the European treaties will be opened next summer and concluded by the Paris summit in December. The summit is expected to be limited to a number of institutional issues left over from the Amsterdam Treaty, primarily the reduction to one in the number of commissioners large states have. In return they will see a reweighting of votes in the Council of Ministers in their favour.
Some leaders are keen also to see a further discussion of the reduction in veto voting in favour of qualified majority voting. Mr Ahern said that while Ireland favoured more QMV it did not always guarantee fairness and he cited the dispute over the division of blue whiting stocks to the north and west of Ireland.