Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

It is generally accepted that, after the failure to agree on a budget or plans to ratify the constitution at last week's meeting in Brussels, the EU faces its most serious crisis in decades. The delegation which visited the White House yesterday for US-EU talks had the appearance of a lame duck. It is ironic to hear President Bush express US support for a strong Europe, while commentators simultaneously referred to a diminished global role for Europe in the wake of last week's meeting.

The Council meeting abandoned the attempt to ratify the EU's first constitution by next year without declaring the document dead. This effectively left the EU without a roadmap. It appears to be in suspended animation for the duration of a period of reflection. This period may become permanent if the humiliating defeats of the referenda in France and the Netherlands are repeated. The Luxembourg Prime Minister, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, was coldly realistic in saying that the EU could not continue as if nothing had happened. The Prime Minister also remarked that the November 2006 target date for ratification of the constitution by all member states is no longer tenable.

The Council apparently did not attribute the failure of the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands to any imperfections in the document but to the electorate's lack of knowledge or understanding. EU President, Mr. José Manuel Barroso, would be well advised not to underestimate the intelligence of the public or its understanding of and concerns about the EU constitution. Since last week France has engaged in recrimination, with the new Prime Minister suggesting that the accession of ten new states in May 2004 was the real reason for the French rejection of the constitution.

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