Is it pre-agreement tension, or might it be something more serious? This week European foreign ministers reopened negotiations on the European Union's draft constitutional treaty-and promptly began sniping at each other. The Irish government, which is chairing the negotiations, is hoping to get a deal in June. But with only a month to go, the politicians are proving better at coming up with inventive insults than new ideas. Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, accused Britain's Jack Straw of trying to "salami slice" the constitution. Mr Straw suggested that the room was full of "mosquitoes" trying to bite the Brits. Most participants in the talks still bet that there will, just, be agreement next month, but the atmosphere is deteriorating. The press and politicians are, naturally, concentrating on the big political issues that remain on the table, such as the legal force of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the voting weights for EU countries and the retention of national vetoes. But behind the smoke of battle, scores of more obscure struggles are being fought. Brussels is abuzz with the sorts of lobbyists that are more commonly found on Capitol Hill in Washington, working overtime to get a few words changed or inserted that may matter not a jot to the average citizen, but are crucial to particular businesses or interest groups. For the constitution is more than a codification of existing EU law. Dotted throughout its 305 pages, 472 articles and seven protocols and declarations are lots of little twists and details-adding an EU power here, refining a power there-each of which is of vital importance to somebody.
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