” “The agreement on the Reform Treaty, reached tonight and announced by a spokesperson of the Portuguese presidency at three am on Friday, reflected the requests submitted by several governments, in particular Poland and Italy. Warsaw wanted the "Ionannina clause" to be included in a binding protocol with legal force. Under it, any decision taken by the majority of the EU Council can be temporarily frozen at the request of the opposing countries. At the same time, Poland has been granted its request to have its own general counsel in the Court of Justice of Luxembourg. Italy had asked instead not to lose its equality with France and Great Britain in terms of seats at the European Parliament: in this case, the summit decided to give one more seat to Rome, which from 2009 (when the Assembly will be reduced from the current 785 members to 750) will have 73, like London; Paris, instead, will have 74 seats. A compromise that has been made possible by the fact the total number of seats is now 751, considering the President usually does not vote. Such composition will remain in force until 2014: from then on, the Council recommends that the seats should be distributed on the basis of the citizenship principle, as Italy had asked for, not on the basis of the resident population, as it happens now.” “
