EU in chaos as summit disintegrates

Published on Sunday 14 December 2003 00:00

THE European Union was facing one of the gravest crises in its history yesterday after a summit to agree the new constitution collapsed amid acrimony and recriminations.

President Jacques Chirac of France immediately threatened to split the EU by creating a "pioneer group" which would be the "motor" for progress.

His words came after the heads of state were forced to scupper the Brussels summit after failing to break the deadlock on voting rights.

The issue has dominated the meeting, with Poland and Spain refusing French and German demands to give up their over-generous allotment of votes on the council of ministers - the main policy-making body of the EU.

A compromise tabled by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian president hosting the talks, received short shrift from the Spanish and meant the summit broke up without the constitution - designed to clarify the rules of the EU ahead of enlargement to 25 states next year - being signed off.

An emergency meeting between Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schrder and Berlusconi yesterday morning failed to resolve the crisis, prompting the four leaders to decide to draw stumps on the summit.

When further meetings between Schrder and the Polish Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, ended without accord, it was immediately clear the summit was officially over.

Blair tried to make the best of what was clearly a disaster for the EU, saying agreed negotiations would continue in the New Year under the Irish presidency. "To look at this in apocalyptic terms is rather misguided," he said.

The Prime Minister said it was better to have broken off the talks rather than repeat the experience of the Nice summit three years ago when an agreement was only struck at 4am.

"There’s no point in having deliberations going through into the morning only to have a poor agreement," he said.

He was also pessimistic about the possibility of the constitution being agreed: "My best judgment is it is not an impossible mountain to climb, but I cannot be sure.

"We have got a significant period of time to find a way through this; even if we had reached agreement today it would not have come into place until 2009."

Although the failure to agree the new treaty will not prevent enlargement, the apparent inability of the EU to reform its institutions is a major blow to its credibility.

The collapse also opens up the spectre of a two-speed Europe with France and Germany pressing ahead with their intergrationist agenda and the new European countries pushing for a looser coalition of member states.

France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg - the basis of the pioneer group - could make a declaration within a matter of days setting out their agenda for Europe.

The recriminations were immediate with many of the smaller countries claiming France had deliberately forced the collapse of the talks in order to protect its voting powers secured at the Nice treaty which gives parity with Germany.

In addition to the split over voting rights, the states were divided on the size of the commission, the role of the new EU president and whether the new treaty should contain and whether the new treaty should contain a reference to Europe’s Christian heritage.

Such is the depth of the divisions that negotiations to secure Britain’s red lines - issues such as taxation, foreign affairs and the rebate where the national veto must remain - never reached the negotiating table.

But the postponement could have a silver lining for Blair as it pushed into the margins the debate on whether Britain should have a referendum on the new constitution.

In a surprise U-turn, the Prime Minister indicated for the first time that a referendum may take place - previously he has always insisted ratification of treaties is a matter for Parliament.

"Let us wait and see whether we get a European constitution before we decide whether it is something of such fundamental importance that we need a referendum on it," he said.

Although Britain was supposedly neutral on the issue of voting rights, Blair had been under pressure from the other "big four" countries - France, Germany and Italy - to persuade Spain and Poland to drop their opposition to the proposed changes.

The stumbling block is the favourable voting powers granted to Madrid and Warsaw at the treaty of Nice three years ago which saw them granted 27 votes apiece on the council compared to 29 votes given to Germany, whose population is larger than the other two countries put together.

The draft treaty recommends replacing this with a "double majority" system where decisions are made if the majority of countries are in favour and those countries represent 60% of the EU’s population

In a terse statement, the EU said: "The European Council noted that it was not possible for the intergovernmental conference to reach an overall agreement on a draft constitutional treaty at this stage.

"The Irish presidency is requested on the basis of consultations to make an assessment of the prospect for progress and to report to the European council in March."

Senior officials in the British camp said they were not optimistic of an immediate resolution to the crisis.

"We are not going to start jumping for a constitution as soon as January arrives," said one Foreign Office insider.