Constitution negotiations reach fever pitch

With just a few days to go before negotiations on the Constitution are formally revived, behind the scenes activity has increased to fever pitch.

Following a meeting on Tuesday (11 May) in Brussels, EU finance ministers are trying to see if they can reach unanimity between themselves on issues where they would like to see the powers of the EU institutions reduced in the treaty blueprint.

According to diplomats, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown insisted on reverting to proposals agreed b...