Hervatting onderhandelingen niet voor maart 2004 (en)

EUOBSERVER/ BRUSSELS - EU leaders have decided to take a breathing space on negotiations on the Constitution after the failure of talks today in Brussels (13 December).

The responsibility will now fall to Ireland as the in-coming EU Presidency to assess the mood in Europe over the next few week after member states failed to bridge their differences over the balance of power in a future EU.

But a meeting like today's, which gathered EU leaders together specifically to talk about the Constitution, is not set to happen until at least March 2004.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said "Everyone will take time out now to reflect".

He said the Irish Presidency had been tasked to carry out a series of consultations with member states and then to present an assessment to the European Council in March.

Mr Ahern said that there would not be another intergovernmental conference called to complete the Constitution in the next couple of months.

He then added that he did not know if there would be one called at all in the Irish Presidency which runs until the end of June; it will all depend on the "atmosphere".

At the moment, "that atmosphere is not there", said the Taoiseach.

All to blame

Most EU leaders did not want to dwell on who was to blame for the failed talks which essentially fell apart after Germany, Poland and Spain could not reconcile their differences on a possible new voting system in the EU.

European Parliament President Pat Cox said the feeling was more one of "sorrow than recrimination".

One EU diplomat said simply that there was no political will to conclude today.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said "for certain delegations national interests seemed more important than European interests".

They also sought to play down any talks of Europe being in a crisis. French President Jacques Chirac said it was not an "extraordinary crisis".

For their part, Spain and Poland, both staunch defenders of a voting system that gives them a relatively beneficial voting weight (under the Nice Treaty) refused to take the blame for a deal not being reached.

Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said "My co-responsibility is exactly the same as the other participants" while his Spanish counterpart José María Aznar said "the responsibility for not reaching an agreement lies with the 25".

Whether it will all unravel

The Irish Presidency now has the task to see what has actually been agreed by the member states, as substantial progress was made yesterday (12 December) during bilateral meetings on over 90% of the Constitution.

The document containing all the pencilled-in agreements, which was never formally tabled, will now be handed over from the Italians to the Irish and will be the basis upon which negotiations will begin again.

However, as the document has not been seen as a whole by anyone except the Italian Presidency, there is some fear that member states will not hold to their agreed positions.

Speaking to journalists yesterday before the talks failed, Mr Ahern was pessimistic about whether agreed positions will hold into his Presidency. Over the Christmas period "people will open up other issues", he predicted.