BRUSSELS, Dec 13: European Union leaders on Saturday failed to clinch a crucial new constitutional deal, raising fears the bloc was heading for a split into fast and slow-track integration blocs.
With the entry of ten new states next year, EU founding members had a special responsibility to keep the Union moving forward, French President Jacques Chirac warned.
The EU had to seriously reflect on its future direction and on how to keep the spark alive, Mr Chirac told reporters, adding that it was now up to a small group of EU “pioneers” to work for closer integration.
“This is a good solution ... for Europe to go further and faster,” Mr Chirac underlined.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder echoed the French leader when asked if the EU now needed a fast-track avant-garde. “The countries that want more integration will have to think about this route,” he said.
“The next few months will show if we are successful in holding all (countries) together,” he added.
Italian diplomats said the EU might now turn to the six founding members of the bloc - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - to hammer out new proposals.
The comments raised the spectre of a two-speed Europe, with the founding members forming an elite club with deeper ties and others _ especially the central and eastern European newcomers _ forced to the periphery.
Mr Chirac denied any clash between new and old Europeans, but pointed to what he described as a “difference of culture” between old EU states, which, as he put it, had a long experience of European integration and the incoming countries that lacked such a joint history.
The unprecedented disarray in Brussels following a continuing struggle for power between heavyweights Germany and France on one side, and Spain, joined by future member Poland, on the other.
Madrid and Warsaw wanted to cling to the 27 votes each they received under the EU’s 2000 Nice Treaty, putting them on a par with Germany, which although it has a much larger population, got only 29 votes.
Germany and France want the old system to be replaced with a new “double majority” voting method, which would give countries with big populations - like theirs - more influence.
The EU discord in Brussels cannot, however, delay an enlargement, set for May 1 next year, to include Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
All leaders stressed there should be no headlong rush to restart constitution negotiations, saying everybody needed a cooling off period.
“It is better to give it some time...to find common points of accord,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The summit set no deadline for resuming talks, with Mr Chirac saying the delay could extend into the second half of next year.
Ireland, which takes over the EU presidency next month, has been instructed to make an assessment on chances of progress and report to leaders in March.