A final confirmation of Malta's sixth European Parliamentary seat stands to be etched in stone in the near future with the opening yesterday of an intergovernmental conference (IGC) in Brussels.

The IGC will formalise the political agreements reached at the EU summit at the end of last month and which have been laid out in the EU's draft Reform Treaty, which replaces the EU's failed Constitution - rejected by France and Holland in referenda in 2005.

But time will be of the essence for Malta, if Malta's quota of MEPs is to be raised from five to six in time for the next MEP elections in June 2009, and EU leaders have set a tight October deadline by which to conclude the conference.

After today's launch of the IGC, work between member states' legal experts - so-called 'sherpas', or political appointees from each member state - to hammer out the legal text of last month's political agreements between EU leaders will continue behind the scenes. The EU's foreign ministers are due to assess progress at a meeting in early September in Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency.

Once agreed, the final Reform Treaty could be signed in October, if the IGC is indeed wrapped up by then, or at the EU summit in December. The Treaty, once signed, will have to be ratified, some time in 2008, by all member states, including Malta even though it had already ratified its predecessor, the failed Constitution.

In addition to the crucial sixth EP seat, also on the cards for Malta is an exemption from rules prohibiting Malta from applying for special small island EU funding and the confirmation of commitments on European migration solidarity.

Among a raft of other measures, the Treaty also provides for a new Council vote weighting system, a long-term EU president and foreign policy head, a smaller European Commission with fewer commissioners than member states from 2014, the removal of national vetoes in a number of areas, more say for the European and national parliaments and new powers for the European Commission, European Parliament and European Court of Justice.

Malta will be keeping a close eye on proceedings, as any changes to the agreed text of the treaty might very well entail the redrafting of sections of the text crucial to Malta.

Obstacles are still thought to remain in the form of Polish opposition to the new weighting of votes in the EU's decision making process, a hurdle that had dominated last month's summit of EU leaders. With Poland having threatened to squash the treaty through its veto power, the German EU presidency had, at the time, in a rare strong arm manoeuvre, threatened to go ahead to the IGC this month without Poland.

EU leaders, however, brokered a last-minute deal with Poland on a new vote-weighting system for the Council. The thrust of the Polish dilemma was its refusal of the so-called “double-majority” vote weighting system, which would mean that for a motion to be passed through the Council it would require the support of at least 55 per cent of member states representing at least 65 per cent of the EU's population. Poland's square root system, which found a dearth of support at last month's summit, foresees a state's vote weighting formulated according to the square root of its population. The Polish-proposed system, however, appeared to be detrimental to the four largest and six smallest EU states, with Poland benefiting in particular from such a system. Poland had argued the deaths it suffered during World War II when Nazi Germany invaded meant it would be a much larger country now were it not for the war and that it deserved compensation in vote weighting.

In the 11th hour the Council had originally insisted on an implementation of the double majority system by 2009, while Poland had stood firm on a 2020 date. It was eventually settled that the double majority system would be implemented come 2014, with a transitional period up to 2017.

While EU leaders have said the political agreements would be expected to be respected as experts wade through legal intricacies, Polish foreign minister arriving in Brussels yesterday said, “We would like naturally to give Polish reflections on all our understandings. There are several issues many countries have and we would like to clarify them.”