EU's oil, food and treaty woes crowd summit

Unrest over soaring oil and food prices and a slowing economy converge with political woes over Ireland's rejection of a European Union reform treaty to put pressure on EU leaders at a summit in Brussels this week.
A week after Irish voters dealt a severe blow to plans to overhaul the bloc's creaking institutions to cope with expansion from 15 to 27 member states, leaders will grapple on Thursday and Friday with the consequences of the stunning defeat. "This was to be a nice quiet summit before the non-stop fireworks of a hyperactive French presidency. Now we have an atmosphere of gloom and crisis," a senior EU official said. Truck drivers and farmers plan to bring their lorries and tractors to Brussels streets on Wednesday to press demands for EU action to bring down crippling fuel prices, two weeks after a protest by fishermen in the EU capital turned violent.
Some leaders, notably French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who takes on the EU's rotating presidency from July 1, see a link between the Irish "No" vote and discontent on fuel and food, and want the European Commission to be more responsive. Sarkozy also contradicted the Commission's enlargement chief by saying on Monday that the EU needed the Lisbon treaty before it could expand into the Balkans, including admitting Croatia, first in the queue to join.
French ministers have accused Brussels of being deaf to the distress of fishermen and farmers, using the Irish vote to press Sarkozy's proposal for capping petrol tax and using extra revenue to help sectors under strain.
Meeting in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, ministers from seven southern EU states called for sharply higher state aid for fishermen who have been striking and blockading ports. French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier has suggested the Irish vote showed Brussels should not rush into a world trade deal to the detriment of its farmers, or restrict tuna fishing. EU foreign ministers broadly agreed on Monday that the other countries which have yet to ratify the treaty would continue to do so and give Ireland more time to suggest ways to enable it to come into effect.