EU Summit On Constitution Breaks Down

"The IGC is finished," an Italian diplomat said, referring to the intergovernmental conference (IGC), battling to break a deadlock over the power-charged issue of voting rights, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

An official at Brussels airport said that EU delegations’ planes were being readied to take national leaders home, an airport official was quoted by AFP as saying.

"All the planes are on standby and being prepared. The crews are on their way to the airport," said the official at Brussels-Zaventem airport.

According to the BBC online news service, the talks were deadlocked by Poland and Spain’s refusal to surrender voting rights secured at a summit in Nice three years ago.

“The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said there was "total disagreement" on voting powers.”

The failure was deemed by the BBC correspondent in Brussels as “looking like a disaster for the EU and the future is now uncertain”.

Leading EU leaders, however, tried to play down the gravity of the failure.

"It has not been possible to reach agreement on all points," Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "Countries are going to need some time to find a point of common accord."

"We have institutions that work, we have pressed ahead with enlargement which will take place on May 1," Chirac was quoted by Reuters as telling a news conference after the breakdown of talks. "There is no drama or crisis with a capital ‘C’."
"We were a little too optimistic," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, for his part, said – noting that leaders were only handed the text 10 weeks ago, according to the Associated Press (AP).

"Let’s sit down and use the days of Christmas and I hope that with a new spirit the Irish presidency (next year) will restart negotiations."

However, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said talks on the constitution were unlikely to resume until 2005, according to the BBC.

“He said the EU would ask Ireland, which takes over the presidency in January, to hold talks to suggest a way forward.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said there would not be any further talks on the matter until March.”

A BBC correspondent quoted one official as saying that France forced the breakdown of talks by refusing to consider any compromise on the voting issue.

“He adds that France and Germany are expected to make a joint statement about the future of the talks on the constitution – and the future of the European Union itself.”

Berlusconi, host of the talks during Italy’s tenure of the EU presidency, presented four alternative proposals to Spain and Poland in an attempt to break the deadlock, according to the BBC.

But Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz signaled his country’s refusal to give ground on the voting rights issue, it added.

"If it’s not possible to agree, we shall wait. We’re talking about compromise or domination," Cimoszewicz was quoted as saying.