European Union leaders voiced relief at clinching a deal on Friday on a treaty to reform the 27-nation bloc's institutions, replacing a defunct constitution and ending a two-year crisis of confidence in Europe's future.
"It's an important page in the history of Europe. Europe is now stronger, more confident and ready to face the challenges in the future," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said after brokering agreement at an EU summit. After their post-midnight deal, leaders hugged each other and toasted with champagne a treaty that will be signed on December 13 in Lisbon.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who faces uproar at home over his refusal to put the treaty to a referendum, declined the champagne. For enthusiastic European integrationists, on the other hand, celebration was tinged with regret for the constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who brokered the political mandate for the treaty in June, told reporters: "Certain items had to be taken out of the treaty but after what happened at the referendums we could not just go back with the same text. People would say that is not democratic."
This time, only Ireland is likely to hold a referendum. Provided it is ratified by all 27 member states, the treaty will take effect in 2009 giving the EU a long-term president, a more powerful foreign policy chief, more democratic decision making and more say for the European and national parliaments.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested former British Prime Minister Tony Blair or veteran Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker would make excellent candidates for the new president's job. He also hinted at endorsing Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as president of the European Commission.
NEW PRIORITIES: The more modest treaty is not styled a constitution and omits any mention of an EU anthem or flag, but it retains all the key reforms in the original charter. Barroso told a news conference: "We have said many times that reform is not an end in itself. With these institutions now, we can look after the most important priorities for our citizens."
To underline the point, the Portuguese presidency set out new priorities in a post-summit statement, including strengthening Europe's response to globalisation, working for transparency on financial markets, and pressing ahead with ambitious climate change and renewable energy targets.
Brown, Sarkozy and Merkel issued a joint statement calling for market solutions in response to recent financial turmoil while urging EU finance ministers to study ways of increasing transparency to improve risk management in crises. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the agreement marked an end to "six years of institutional navel-gazing".
The opposition Conservatives and the mass-circulation Sun newspaper stepped up their campaign for Brown to give Britons a vote on the treaty, accusing him of breaking a promise to hold a plebiscite on the old charter. "Brown surrenders Britain's power to Europe over dinner," said the tabloid Sun newspaper in a double page spread under the banner headline "The Last Supper" likening the British prime minister to Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus Christ.
In the final wrangling, Italy won one extra seat in the European Parliament. Poland won a guarantee that a provision allowing small groups of states to delay EU decisions could only be overturned by unanimity, plus a permanent advocate-general's job at the European Court of Justice for a Pole. There were also concessions on side issues to Austria, Bulgaria and the European Parliament in a typical package deal.
Warsaw, which before the start of the two-day summit had threatened to delay the talks if its demands on new voting arrangements were not met, said its key demand had been met. "Poland achieved all it wanted," President Lech Kaczynski told reporters.
Poland had fought against the changed voting system at a bitter summit in June, saying it would give too much power to Germany, Europe's most populous nation, at Warsaw's expense. Other leaders ascribed Kaczynski's brinkmanship to the fact that Poland holds an early parliamentary election on Sunday. The president's brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is fighting for re-election and flagging in opinion polls.
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