European Union leaders on Friday put off until 2008 the hard decisions on what do with the bloc's stalled constitution, thrown out last year by French and Dutch voters.
Split on the fate of the charter, prime ministers and presidents decided instead to push ahead with projects they hope will restore the credibility of the EU, for example in a more co-ordinated energy policy and on asylum.
"They don't want to run the risk of a second failure," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said of the decision to leave the treaty's fate in the balance. He called for an end to speculation over whether the treaty was dead. "Dead or alive is good for gangster films," he said. The constitution needs approval of all the EU's 25 members to take effect. A majority of countries see it as vital to reforming the overloaded institutions of the steadily growing bloc. But a minority would prefer to ditch it.
"We prolonged the period of reflection precisely because we have not got any solutions for getting out of this," said French President Jacques Chirac, whose prestige took a huge blow in the referendum rejection of the constitution in France. The charter provides for a long-term EU president and foreign minister and a simpler voting system taking more account of population size.
The EU leaders on Friday decided to come up with a report in the first half of 2007 as "the basis for further decisions on how to continue the reform process" which would have to be taken by the second half of 2008. Diplomats said it was clear no decisions could be taken until after Dutch and French elections in May 2007.
OPEN-ENDED PAUSE: Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said many leaders believed dropping the term "constitution" could help reassure voters about the reforms.
"The term 'constitution' in the way that it is understood by many people gives the impression that the European Union is in the process of turning itself into a state," he said. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country takes on the EU presidency in January, insisted the idea of institutional reform should not be rebranded.
"I do not believe that the work would be done by giving the constitutional treaty a new name," Merkel said. "We just have to be patient. That's the way it is sometimes in life."
Diplomats said France, the Netherlands and largely eurosceptic Britain initially wanted no mention of the word "constitution", while Poland had been reticent about a deadline. On the opposing side, Germany and 14 others including Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, who have ratified the treaty, do not want to see it shelved or gutted. "The treaty we ratified in Spain is a good one," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said.
The deadlock has cast doubt over whether the EU can continue to take in new members. The French and Dutch rejection of the constitution was seen as partly linked to concern among voters about the expansion of the bloc, which could one day include Turkey and Balkan states. But the EU leaders on Friday dropped the idea of formally declaring the bloc's capacity to absorb new members as a criterion for further enlargement.