European Constitutional Treaty Signed

-ERDOGAN AND GUL SIGN FINAL ACT ON BEHALF OF TURKEY

ROME - The European Constitutional Treaty was signed in Italian capital Rome on Friday.
The treaty was the result of 28 months of debate among 25 EU governments and now faces ratification in national parliaments within the next two years. At least nine EU nations also plan to put it to a referendum.
After heads of state and government of 25 EU-member countries signed the treaty, leaders of four EU candidate states Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia signed the Final Act.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister put their signature to the Final Act on behalf of Turkey.
The treaty includes new powers for the European Parliament and ends national vetoes in 45 new policy areas including judicial and police cooperation, education and economic policy. The constitution was signed in the sala degli Orazi e Curiazi, the same spectacular hall in a Renaissance palazzo where in 1957 six nations Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg signed the union's founding treaty.
(UK-AÖ) 29.10.2004