BRUSSELS,
December 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The European Union
(EU) summit, aimed at hammering out the expanding bloc's first-ever
constitution, ended in failure Saturday, December 13.
"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'."
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"Countries are going to need some time to find a point of common accord,” Blair
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"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.
