This was possible after European Union leaders agreed on the first-ever constitution for the union at the Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels late yesterday evening.

The issue on which there was still disagreement was the question of qualified majority voting and the size of the qualified majority as well as that of the blocking minority tied with it.

The breakthrough came when discussions re-started at around 9.30pm after the Irish Presidency presented a revised version of its proposals on the outstanding issues to member states.

Speaking to Maltese journalists shortly before leaving for the airport at around 11.15pm, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi welcomed the agreement on the EU constitution with “great satisfaction”.

“We are satisfied because Malta’s main aims have indeed been reached during the meetings over the last two days with regards to the sixth seat in the EP and the reference to island states ‘in their entirety’,” Dr Gonzi said.

He said the agreement on the new European Commission composition was “a compromise was reached by all member states”.

Dr Gonzi confirmed that the question over qualified majority voting “delayed the process to reach an agreement” on the EU constitution.

“This was a very historic moment. It was very difficult to reach this agreement, and there were moments where every country had to arrive at a compromise,” he said.

“The departure point for Malta was four seats in the EP, and the relentless work of the previous prime minister as well as of this delegation.

“We insisted that this was a very important point so Malta could give its proper contribution to the EU. Finally, this point was accepted and we are proud of this,” the prime minister said.

He gave his final thanks to Commission President Romano Prodi and European Council President Bertie Ahern in Maltese “because the moment required so”.

Dr Gonzi said he was disappointed that there was no reference to the Christian heritage of the EU in the preamble of the constitution as Malta had been insisting.

He said, however, that in Article 51 of the constitution there was a reference to religion and the EU’s respect for it.

Dr Gonzi revealed that at the final session of the IGC this evening, Poland made a final attempt to put forward this request.

However, he said that the greater objective was to produce a constitution to help the EU grow as this was important both for the union and for Malta.

The EU constitution establishes a minimum of six seats per member state in the EP as from 2009, while introducing a maximum of 96 seats per member state, three more than Germany currently has.

The total number of seats in the EP was capped at 750 as from 2009.

On the issue of qualified majority in the Council of Ministers, the constitution establishes this as 55 per cent of member states comprising at least 15 of them representing at least 65 per cent of EU population.

However, when the Council of Ministers is not acting on a proposal from the European Commission or from the proposed EU foreign affairs minister, the qualified majority would rise to 72 per cent of member states representing at least 65 per cent of EU population.

The agreed text of the constitution states that a blocking minority must include at least four member states, failing which the qualified majority shall be deemed attained.

Abstentions would not be taken into account when counting the total number of member states and of EU population.

On this issue, 13 member states, including Malta, had proposed that the qualified majority should be at least 58 per cent of member states representing at least 65 per cent of the EU population.

A second proposal by the following countries – Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia – saw the qualified majority as a majority plus two of EU member states representing at least 65 per cent of member states. In both proposals, the 13 member states had asked for the blocking minority to be raised to five member states.

On the European Commission, the EU constitution states that as from 2014, the Commission will be reduced to a number corresponding to two-thirds of the number of EU member states.

In order for this figure to be changed, the European Council must act unanimously, the EU constitution states.

Until 2014, there will continue to be a national from every member state.

Moreover, a declaration annexed to the constitution states that when the Commission no longer includes national from every member state, it “should pay particular attention to the need to ensure full transparency in relations with all member states” and liaise with all of them irrespective of whether they have a national serving in the Commission or not.

As reported by The Malta Independent yesterday, the EU constitution does not have any reference to the Christian heritage of Europe in its preamble as it got lost in the bargaining process leading to this agreement.

The EU constitution also states that “island(s), including island states in their entirety”, shall be given “particular attention” in its cohesion policies to reduce disparities between the levels of development of the various regions comprising the EU. This includes Malta and Cyprus.

Dr Gonzi had to delay his departure to Malta in the evening as EU leaders had been locked in the secondx working session of the IGC for the day since around 5pm.

This started after the Irish presidency went straight from lunch into a series of one-to-one meetings, or “confessionals” as they are called, with the delegations of each member states at around 3pm.

As a result of this, an earlier press conference scheduled for 2.45pm by Dr Gonzi was called off as EU leaders went straight from lunch to a series of one-to-one meetings with the delegations of each member state.

Sources close to the Irish presidency told The Malta Independent yesterday afternoon that they had been concentrating all their energies on reaching a deal on the EU constitution. EU leaders had continued discussing the pending issues in the EU constitution over lunchtime, after the morning session had been dedicated to the conclusions of the Council.

In the morning, the Irish presidency circulated a revised version of its proposals on the outstanding issues in the EU constitution in which it tried to address the pending concerns on qualified majority voting and the composition of the commission, among other things.

Meanwhile, the discussion on the name of the new commission president has been postponed to a later date.

On Thursday evening, European Council President Bertie Ahern announced that the discussions on this matter had been postponed till an agreement was reached on the EU constitution.

The Irish Presidency decided to postpone the discussion on the name of the new commission president following a series of one-to-one “confessionals” with EU leaders earlier that evening that failed to give the desired result.