EU leaders struggle to deal with crisis

Anthony Deutsch, The Hague

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder rushed to Luxembourg to discuss the EU's future with the country's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who will chair the summit. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he also will meet Mr Juncker next week.

But as leaders of founding EU states struggled to limit the fallout from this week's rejections of the charter by Dutch and French voters, MPs in tiny Latvia one of the EU's newest members ratified the draft.

It was the 10th nation to say "yes" to the treaty, drawn up laboriously over two years to govern an expanding and unwieldy union.

The Dutch and French rejected the constitution in referendums by margins that left no doubt over the depth of discontent in parts of Western Europe over the EU's direction.

The constitution had to be approved by all 25 members to come into force, and Dutch leaders yesterday withdrew a bill from parliament to ratify the charter.

Before France's vote, EU leaders repeatedly stressed there would be no re-negotiation of the paperback book-sized document.

But the EU Commission in Brussels said a summit set for June 16-17 will consider the possibility of drafting a new constitution.

"I am sure that is something that will be debated that week," EU Commission spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail said, when asked whether a new constitution was a possibility.

The draft constitution was meant to give Europe some of the trappings of statehood.

But it also was devised to allow the organs of the EU bureaucracy to function more smoothly following the expansion last year by 10 new members, eliminating the need for unanimity on many issues.

The reasons driving the "no" campaigns in France and the Netherlands were different.

But they shared a common fear that their culturally rich nations would be submerged in a superstate.

Mr Balkenende told a sullen Dutch parliament that European leaders had raced toward integration without consulting their peoples. More than 85% of the 150 members of the Dutch parliament had backed the constitution.

Now, Brussels has to reconnect with the people, Mr Balkenende added. "More attention for the citizens, fewer big words, and no more steps forward until there is support for them."

Some 62% of the Dutch electorate rejected the treaty in Wednesday's ballot, three days after 55% of French voters had said no to the charter.