Sunday, Jun 19, 2005
Sunday, Jun 19, 2005 |
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BRUSSELS: The European Union nations struggled to find a way forward on Saturday after the spectacular failure of a two-day summit that produced neither a budget for the years ahead nor a clear sign that the bloc's constitution will ever get ratified. The blame-game began the moment the bleary-eyed leaders emerged from their fruitless talks in the early hours of Saturday. And British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose country takes over the E.U.'s six-month rotating presidency on July 1 from Luxembourg, was the main target. Summit host Jean Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, pointedly told reporters he will make sure to miss Mr. Blair's outline his plans for the E.U. when he addresses the European Parliament on Thursday. ``As that is the national day of Luxembourg, I will not be listening,'' he said. In two days of extraordinarily acrimonious negotiations, the 25 E.U. leaders haggled over their common spending plans for the 2007-2013 period.
Profound damage
They failed to reach a deal. Nor did they present a clear blueprint to save a proposed E.U. constitution recently shot down by voters in France and the Netherlands. Mr. Juncker said the damage caused was profound. In weeks ahead, E.U. diplomats and others ``will tell you that Europe is not in crisis,'' he said after the summit collapsed. ``It is in a deep crisis.'' Britain was criticised for postponing its referendum on the E.U. constitution after French and Dutch voters rejected it. Luxembourg, Denmark and others are now also expected to postpone their votes, throwing the charter's fate into more uncertainty. The budget debacle centred on Britain's refusal to surrender an annual rebate to reimburse it for its outsized payments to the E.U. coffers. Mr. Blair's demand to link any discussion of the rebate to overall reform of the E.U.'s agricultural subsidies — of which France is the main beneficiary — scuttled a spending deal. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accused other E.U. leaders of wanting a European Union ``trapped in the past'.
— AP
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