Oud-commissievoorzitter Delors verwijt Europese leiders gebrek aan visie (en)

On the eve of an EU leader discussion on the paralysed constitution, two ex-presidents of the European Commission have expressed differing views on what to do next.

Jacques Delors, French commission president during the one of the most active periods of EU single market integration (1985-1995), warns of a crisis which could lead to the "collapse of the European project."

He accuses the bloc's leaders themselves of driving the union into its "worst ever crisis."

Speaking at a conference in Helsinki earlier this week, Mr Delors said Europe's top politicians lacked a common purpose.

"A single vision, a shared vision of Europe no longer exists," he said, according to AFP agency, adding that it prevents member states from envisaging future attainable goals for the enlarged union.

"Citizens, not only in France and the Netherlands, have become sceptical, and at times worried, which explains why member governments risk seeing the collapse of the EU project," he added.

Mr Delors, now 80 years old, was one of the key players behind creating the bloc's single currency and he still believes there are reasons to consider the so-called "two-speed Europe" initiatives in future.

He argues the creation of the 12-member eurozone or the borderless Schengen zone has proved the point.

"If we had waited for the agreement of 15 governments, there would be no euro today," he said in Helsinki.

Mr Delors also expressed support for the idea that EU should only take in new member countries if and when it has capacity to absorb them, "from legal, economic and institutional perspectives as well as public opinion."

The "absorption capacity" criterion is an extremely divisive issue among member states at the moment, with continued wrangling about role it should play for countries hoping to join the EU.

Prodi: Long live a new treaty

Meanwhile, Italy's current prime minister and commission president from 1999 to 2004 was more upbeat.

He has toured Austria and France with his own idea on what to do next.

"After the French elections [in 2007] we will be able to resume active work on the constitutional document and prepare a strategy of the next move," Mr Prodi said in Vienna on Tuesday, according to CTK agency.

"Naturally, it will not be the same text as the one which was rejected," he said, adding the whole new process "would not be easy but also not impossible."

Before the resumption of constitution re-drafting, the EU should focus on concrete projects that are favoured by its citizens, he indicated. This is also the line promoted by the current European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.