With Spain and Poland refusing to give up their status and smaller Member States worried about losing influence, three days before the start of the IGC the draft Constitution may already be in danger.
The Commission will be represented by its President at the heads of state and government meetings and by Commissioners Barnier and Vitorino at the foreign ministers' gatherings.
The ten new Member States will participate in the IGC with equal weight. Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey will take part as observers.
Spain - smaller than the large countries in the current EU-15 - and Poland - the biggest among the new Member States - have joined forces to keep their privileges achieved at Nice. This notably concerns their voting weight in the Council, which provides these countries with a weight almost equal to that of other countries with far larger populations, including Germany. In addition, the two reject the principle of double majority, arguing that this would significanly increase the weight of the most populous states. In a news article, Spanish European Affairs minister Ana Palacio drew attention to the "60 per cent of EU population rule", which would give the most weight to big countries, notably Turkey, which is set to become the most populous Member States by the time it joins the Union.
The smaller states, including Austria , the Central and Eastern European countries, Malta and Cyprus worry about the loss of the rotating presidency and would like to stick to the "one country, one Commissioner" principle.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus has warned against creating a superstate in which the citizens of smaller states would have a negligible voice and in which the gap between citizens and decision makers would increase.
Poland, Spain, Italy and Ireland have called for a reference to Europe's Christian heritage in the preamble, which notion the French categorically reject.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has scheduled a meeting with Commission President Romano Prodi to discuss issues related to the IGC, including, the Danish opt-outs maintained in four areas (single currency, judicial cooperation, common defense policy and European citizenship).
