The European Commission has said that a row between EU leaders at the end of last weekend's summit in Laeken highlighted the need for curbing the use of the national veto in decision-making.
The summit ended abruptly on Saturday evening after the leaders failed to agree on where to locate 13 new European agencies. In farcical exchanges, the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, suggested that Helsinki should not host the European Food Authority because Finns did not know enough about the culinary arts.
"This shows once again, if proof were needed, that having to take decisions by unanimity creates problems. We have always advocated the use of majority voting in as many areas as possible where the Union and its institutions have to be decisive and effective," said Mr Jonathan Faull, the Commission's chief spokesman.
The Commission's President, Mr Romano Prodi, said recently that qualified majority voting must be extended to more policy areas to prevent gridlock in an enlarged EU.
However, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said at the weekend that he believed that the extension of qualified majority voting, which was discussed at Nice, would not be reopened during the forthcoming debate on Europe's future.
At the summit, EU leaders approved plans for a convention to shape the debate, which is aimed at making the EU more democratic and effective.
The agenda of the convention, which begins work in March under the chairmanship of former French president Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, will include the question of whether to extend qualified majority voting and whether to have the President of the Commission elected directly by European voters.
The convention will include representatives from national governments, national parliaments, the Commission and the European Parliament.
EU decision-making will need to be streamlined ahead of the accession of new member-states, the British Prime Minister insisted yesterday. Mr Blair told the Commons: "It is obvious that the EU cannot, with 25 and more members, work in the same way, with precisely the same constitution as it has with 15."
