The Irish presidency today revealed its new EU Constitution paper. Next month at their June summit there will be a butting of the EU heads over the proposed Constitution. The Irish paper that was just released is hoped to relieve some of their pain.

The part in the paper that interested me was where it called for the immediate implementation of certain elements of the new Constitution before it is even ratified. The EUobserver reports:

One proposal includes starting to set up the diplomatic service for the new EU foreign minister as soon as the treaty has been signed -- which is set to be this year. This is despite the fact that the foreign minister post is technically not supposed to come into force until 2009 Read about it here.

Now this makes me laugh. It seems while the EU presidency has been busy debugging the EU's new Constitution, France and Germany have been plotting together on a way to maintain their control over the smaller member states. They want a German to be vice-president of the Commission and a Frenchman as deputy secretary general of the Council Read about it here. 

Where will all this end? If the EU heads survive their June butting and reach an agreement, it will end sometime this year in Rome where the new Constitution will be signed Read about it here. 

But keep in mind, the way it stands now the Constitution will still have to be ratified by all 25 member states. And even after it's ratified, it's not scheduled to go into force until 2009.

In the mean time, the surrounding world continues to boil. There is a war on terror to fight, treaties to be made and conflicts to be resolved. And this brings us back to reality. Someone will have to be in charge.

And wouldn't you know it ... Javier Solana just raised his hand.