Europe's troubled constitutional treaty will be ditched by EU leaders at their crunch summit later this week. | "It's dead, Jean-Claude" |
Until now, all 25 EU governments have permitted themselves to ratify the proposed new document - either by parliamentary assent or through referendum votes - by November 2006. Now, in the wake of the devastating treaty rejections in France and the Netherlands, this week's summit declaration will make no reference to the deadline. Instead the summit language will make clear that governments can make their own decisions in the wake of the double setback to the prospects of the treaty ever coming into force. EU officials are also considering a more concrete declaration of a "freeze" in the ratification process. That would let Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker off the hook - as his nation prepares for its own treaty referendum later this month with odds growing of a third rejection. Whatever words are chosen at the summit, the effect will be the same. "The whole thing is being kicked into some very long grass indeed," said one official. "You could say it is effectively dead."
Another nod to the "no" voters, particularly in the Netherlands, is a decision to make no direct reference at all to Turkey in the summit declaration.
| "Turkey? Never heard of them" |
| "No, no, certainly not." |
The diplomatic manoeuvrings over the treaty in Turkey cannot be used to wish away the row over the future EU budget and the growing tensions over the British rebate. With British and French government ministers toughening the rhetoric over the rebate almost hourly, the scene is set for a major clash, with little prospect of agreement on spending.