This the Irish presidency’s latest document suggests has some attractions but it would

This, the Irish presidency’s latest document suggests, “has some attractions but it would have the consequence that, as the Union grew, so too would the size of the Commission”. Ireland has been one of the countries resisting a reduction in the Commission size, so its proposal is seen as having a good chance of achieving a breakthrough.The central question overshadowing the whole negotiations remains that of voting weights, with Spain and Poland still haggling over a system of “double-majority voting” under which decisions can be taken if they have the backing of half of all countries representing 60 per cent of the EU’s citizens.Spain wants to raise the population threshold to 66 per cent to enhance its ability to block measures it opposes. Anxious about the power of the bigger member states, the EU’s small nations are resisting a plan to cut the number of commissioners to 15, and fighting hard to retain the right to send a representative to Brussels.The Irish plan would delay any reform until 2014, giving each of the new countries that joined the EU this month two full terms in the Commission.At that point the team of commissioners would be slimmed to 18 members which, in an EU of 27 members (after the next enlargement) would mean that each country would have a national in two out of every three colleges on an equal rotation.An alternative idea would be to decide the size of the Commission as a proportion – perhaps a half or two-thirds – of the total number of countries of the EU. In Beretta Molla’s case, the Vatican says that one of the miracles needed for her to be beatified concerned a Brazilian woman who recovered in 1977 after her fourth pregnancy.. Controversial plans to strip countries of their automatic right to send a European commissioner to Brussels will be proposed today as the race begins to agree an EU constitution next month.

The priestis credited with healing blind and lame people in the 19th century and is the third Maronite to attain sainthood.The Pope has made creating new role models one of the hallmarks of his papacy. He has now proclaimed 482 saints in his 25-year pontificate, more than all his predecessors over the past 500 years combined.In approving the new saints, John Paul confirmed miracles were attributed to their intercession. In proclaiming her a saint, John Paul praised her “extreme sacrifice” and her simple but profound message.John Paul also praised the examples of the five others canonised, two Italian priests, Luigi Orione and Hannibal Maria di Francia, and a Spanish monk, Josep Manyanet y Vives, who founded religious orders, a Lebanese Maronite priest, Naamatallah Kassab Hardini, and a wealthy Italian widow, Paola Elisabetta Cerioli, who opened her homes to abandoned children.John Paul, who will be 84 tomorrow, read his homily himself and appeared in good form as he declared the saints to a crowd of thousands in St Peter’s Square.Among the well-wishers was the Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud, himself a Maronite Catholic who was in Rome to honour Hardini. Doctors had told her it was dangerous to proceed with the pregnancy because she had a tumour in her uterus, but she insisted on carrying the baby to term. Pope John Paul II named six new saints yesterday, including a woman who became a symbol for opponents of abortion because she refused to end her pregnancy despite warnings that it could kill her.
The Vatican has long championed the case of Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian pediatrician who died in 1962 at the age of 39 – a week after giving birth to her fourth child.

The Q refers to Quincy Jones, a friend of Bono, while Guggi comes from a member of the Virgin Prunes.. They were due to name the third after blues musician Muddy Walters but changed their minds to call her Tallulah after the moll in Bugsy Malone).Name: Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson (Parents: Bono and Ali Hewson)The U2 singer Bono’s third child was nameless for five days before his six-barrelled monicker was revealed. The celebrity chef, whose first daughter is called Poppy Honey, explained that Boo was in fact the nickname of his wife, Jools.Name: Dandelion Pallenberg (Parents: Anita Pallenberg and Keith Richards)The daughter of Rolling Stones’ paramour Anita Pallenberg and guitarist Keith Richards was born into a relationship which declined into heroin. Dandelion later changed her name to Angela, became teetotal and married a joiner.Name: Tallulah Willis (Parents: Bruce Willis and Demi Moore)Demi Moore and Bruce Willis named their first two daughters Rumer, an early 20th-century English novelist, and Scout, the narrator in To Kill a Mockingbird).