There were no doubts that last week's European Union summit would be difficult. The EU leadership has been in uncertain territory since two national votes rejected the new constitution. Few anticipated, however, that EU leaders would compound their troubles with an ugly squabble over the budget that would actually embarrass them. Yet, that is exactly what happened. Europe now faces a prolonged crisis that is not likely to be resolved until there are changes in governments of EU member countries.
Enlargement of the EU from 15 members to 25 required the adoption of new policies and procedures to ensure that the expanded community could function. That was the rationale for the new constitution, which, despite two years of negotiations -- headed by a former French president -- was rejected by French and Dutch voters late last month and earlier this month, respectively. The document must be adopted by all 25 members to go into effect, however. Ten ratified the document, but the "no" votes push the EU into uncharted territory, especially since there is no "Plan B" in the event of rejection.
It was hoped that last week's summit would devise a strategy to deal with this situation. Instead, the leaders merely called for more discussion and debate. The outlook darkened when three countries -- Ireland, Denmark and the Czech Republic -- joined Britain and announced that they were postponing their referendums on the constitution.