European leaders have reached agreement on the issues necessary to pave the way for enlargement of the EU. The summit agreed to extend qualified majority voting to 29 policy areas and six personnel appointments that previously required unanimity. However, it has not been extended to the politically sensitive areas of taxation and social security, immigration and border controls, culture, broadcasting, health and education.

The summit agreed to reweight votes of member states. Germany, France, Britain and Italy will each have 29 votes in the Council of Ministers. Each currently has 10. Spain and Poland will both have 27 votes. Romania will have 15 votes. The Netherlands gets 13. Greece, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary and Portugal will each have 12. Sweden, Bulgaria and Austria each get 10. Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Lithuania will have seven each. Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus and Luxembourg will have four. Malta will have three.

In 2005, the big countries such as Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain will lose their second Commissioner. Each new member state will have one commissioner until there are 27 EU member states. Then leaders will set a permanent cap of fewer than 27. Once the ceiling has been fixed, Commission seats will be filled by rotation among member states.

The veto will stay on tax matters, including laws and regulations of the member states concerning turnover taxes, excise duties and other forms of indirect taxation and for direct taxation. This refutes the anti-European myth that Europe is heading for tax harmonisation.

The European leaders agreed to hold another IGC in 2004, explicitly to define the limits of EU integration to prevent unnecessary centralisation and to consider the role of national parliaments in EU decision-making. It will not be about creating a superstate.

European leaders have agreed a new rapid reaction force for Europe. This force will only be deployed for peacekeeping where NATO is not involved and with the leaders agreeing specific numbers and type of operation. The report agreed at Nice explicitly stated, "this does not involve the establishment of a European army."

What the European Movement says about Nice:

A New Future For Europe

Dear Sir,

The conclusion of the Nice IGC heralds a new future for the European Union. Vital decisions have been taken to help ensure that the EU can expand to include new countries that previously had to suffer under the Soviet yoke.

The package of reforms coming out of the Summit will help ensure that the peace, security and stability enjoyed by the UK and the other peoples of Europe over the past fifty or so years will continue. As the EU expands in the near future, to embrace the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe these immeasurable benefits will be shared by many more, further increasing our common security.

It is important to remember that the founding fathers of what is now the EU wanted to prevent further ravage and strife that had brought Europe to her knees fifty years ago. The decisions taken at Nice will help ensure that this vision reaches many more than they ever envisaged all those years ago.

Yours faithfully,

Justin Powell-Tuck Director, UK European Movement

Anti-European scare stories about tax harmonisation, the European army and the European superstate dominated the run-up to Nice. The outcome of Nice has helped dispel these myths, however, it is up to the pro-Europeans now to explain these benefits to the British public.

No Eurostate, NO Euro-Army

Dear Sir,

The outcome of the Nice summit is something that everyone who cares about this country should welcome. It certainly does not see the start of a superstate or a European army.

In recent weeks the press have reported the Irish President and the President of the European Commission saying Britain must play a positive and constructive role in the European Union for the benefit of Britain and the EU as a whole. The negotiations at Nice show what we can achieve when we do this.

The extension of QMV will help to open up new markets for British firms, improve financial controls in the EU, and mean more appointments on merit. It will also help to speed up procedures at the European Court of Justice, enabling cases to be resolved more quickly.

In future years, Nice will be seen as an important benchmark for the EU; the summit that paved the way for enlargement. This will not only extend the single market to include over 500 million people, but it will also extend the zone of peace and stability, existing in the West for over 50 years, to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Britain and the other members will gain from the agreement. It rebuts, once and for all, those anti-Europeans who were trying to pretend that this summit would see the end of Britain as a nation.