British FM\'s stance on EU compared to Nazis - Main contents

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An eleventh hour complaint by Italy over the future number of seats it will have in the European Parliament i looks set to be the thorniest problem at a meeting of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

The heads of state and government from the 27 member states are gathering to discuss the bloc's new Reform Treaty, with the redistribution of MEP seats supposed to be part of the political package.

But Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, under pressure from opposition politicians, is digging his heels in against the proposal to have 72 Italian deputies from 2009, six less than at the moment.

Rome has two demands - that the calculations for determining how many MEPs a member state gets is carried out differently and that it continues to have the same number of deputies as France and Britain.

According to UK liberal MEP Andrew Duff, one of the parliament's representatives at the treaty talks, the Italian problem "could prove to be the most serious obstacles to an overall agreement at the [meeting]."

He said that there are 27 different definitions of national citizenship and equally as many definitions of franchise - something that will not be resolved by Friday, when the meeting is scheduled to end.

In addition, Rome's demand to have the same number of MEPs as London and Paris - it is to get one and two fewer respectively from 2009 - would mean "opening" up the treaty to change the upper and lower thresholds for deputies.

"There is still some ingenious thinking and negotiation which must take place on that issue," said Mr Duff.

Italy has suggested putting off a decision on seats until after the summit and then setting up a special committee to look into the issue.

But this would likely open a political hornets' nest. The parliament as a whole agreed last week on the general distribution of seats from 2009 but if Rome kicks up a prolonged fuss others may follow suit.

Simply raising the total number of MEPs by a few more than the agreed 750 is not a path the parliament wants to take as it is already open to charges of being a big and unwieldy body.

In addition, it would pave the way to future enlargements of the EU also being accommodated simply by having more MEPs roaming the assembly's corridors.

The political sop being offered the Italy by the parliament - that it would undertake a thorough look at the population in all member states by 2014 - is unlikely to be enough for Rome, however.

Mr Duff, who along with the two other representatives at the treaty talks is against postponing the decision, indicated that in the well-tested fashion of difficult political topics, a "scramble" for a solution will come in the early morning hours of the summit.

However, parliament's attempts to keep a lid on the issue and force EU leaders to decide at the summit rather than dragging it out was dealt a blow by the commission on Wednesday.

European Commission i president Jose Manuel Barroso i said that technically the treaty could be signed off without "the exact number" of MEPs agreed for each member state.