Europese leiders vervelen zich stierlijk op saaie EU-top (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The big result of the EU summit - to talk for another two years about the constitution - will hardly set hearts racing, with the World Cup proving a welcome distraction at Brussels' summer session.

"It doesn't have to be exciting," Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker told EUobserver on Friday, while Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz compared the reflection period to a collective "nap" and Czech president Vaclav Klaus summed up the summit as "word games" on the EU charter.

"Boredom is a part of life," an EU diplomat stated. "This is one of the few summits for a while that was not a make-or-break situation. But, apart from the Iraq war, you don't really get people shouting or throwing things at each other's heads in the council."

"It's good to calm it all down a bit," an Irish diplomat said, while the European Commission's vision of a future "Europe of projects" took a hit with revelations that Europe's flagship Airbus A380 project faces massive delays amid hints of an insider-trading scandal.

French president Jacques Chirac handled the situation in his trademark unflappable style. "[Airbus] is a very big European project and a very big European success," he said, keeping a straight face.

The subdued summit climate lent itself to both politicians and journalists turning their attention to the UK-Trinidad and Tobago and Sweden-Paraguay football games being showed on TV screens around the council's Justus Lipsius building on Thursday.

Germany's Angela Merkel and Poland's Lech Kaczynski had set the tone on Wednesday night (14 June) by dutifully watching the German-Poland football game side-by-side in a VIP box.

Austria's Mr Schussel kept up the momentum by placing a pair of orange-and-black springy footballs on the head of his blushing press spokeswoman while greeting press on Thursday afternoon.

Swedish foreign minister Jan Eliasson, surrounded by a melee of diplomats, yelled "Come on, do a Brolin!" in a reference to a famous Swedish soccer star as the match kicked off.

And Swedish prime minister Goran Persson let out a guttural roar in the car park, as his team's 1-0 victory came through.

UK prime minister Tony Blair also made mysterious, short disappearances during the England game. But British diplomats explained his tardy summit arrival by a prior London engagement to drink tea with the Queen.

"If you read the conclusions, they are actually quite interesting," an EU official remarked, as two thousand journalists' laptops went back into their bags and the 25 EU VIPs made off to their waiting jets.