Brussels, 08/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 8 December, the foreign affairs ministers of the EU prepared for the European Council of 11-12 December, on the basis of a draft text submitted by the French Presidency to the delegations on Friday. At this stage, the text says nothing about the Treaty of Lisbon and remains incomplete as to the Energy/Climate package, two subjects which will be dealt with in an updated version to be distributed to the member states by the Presidency on Wednesday evening. As predicted, the debate held at the Council on Monday was not conclusive on any points on the agenda of the summit. On the Lisbon Treaty, pending the speech by Brian Cowen on Thursday evening, several delegations pleaded in favour of a precise roadmap clearly specifying the route and timetable to be followed to conclude the ratification and implementation of the new treaty. It would appear that the delegations are moving towards a text citing 1 January 2010 as an objective for the implication of the treaty. It is known that one of the plans to prepare for a second Irish referendum may consist of keeping in place the concept of one commissioner for each country. As regards this, the Benelux ministers sent out a warning on Monday: they feel that there should be no thought of jeopardising the "institutional balance" guaranteed by the Lisbon Treaty. "Scaling down the Commission is part of a broad agreement on the institutional balance between the Commission, Council and Parliament. We cannot change any one of these parameters without an in-depth discussion at the European Council", the European affairs minister, Frans Timmermans, explained to a small group of journalists. The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium would also like the European Council to talk openly of the consequences for the EU should Ireland fail to ratify the treaty, he said. If it should prove impossible to bring "absolute clarity" to these issues at this week's European Council, it would be preferable to postpone efforts to find a solution to the problem of Ireland's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty until the summit of March 2009, said Mr Timmermans. On the economic relaunch plan, the debate on Monday focused particularly on whether or not figures should be put to the budgetary volume (the draft text cites "at least 1.5% of GNI, equivalent to around €200 billion "), on respect for the Stability Pact and reducing VAT rates as a possible instrument available to the member states (Germany and a number of other countries remain opposed to this, the United Kingdom is in favour). On all issues, positions continue to differ; it will therefore be up to the heads of government to resolve matters. On the Energy/Climate package, Monday's debate - which will be detailed and technical - apparently failed to bring about any substantial progress towards a compromise. The Presidency will continue with its efforts for the entire run-up to the European Council. (H.B./transl.fl)