I missed the news that the EU constitution talks suffered a major melt-down, but it sounds like it was a real fiasco, with lots of argument over both the voting procedures and the very nature of the constitution itself.
Now there’s talk in some quarters about trying to create a “core Europe” of more agreeable, older EU members, leaving out the contentious newcomers they so recently welcomed. There’s also contention over EU money pay-outs (and curtailing them to “punish” wayward members).
Even Giscard d’Estaing, the architect of the proposed constitution, proposes waiting for another year or more until taking up the constitutional debate again. Though he’s sure it will be eventually adopted, since there is no “credible alternative proposed.”
Because, yeah, that’s a good reason to do something.