European Union leaders will formally agree today to set themselves a 2008 deadline for deciding what to do about the bloc's stalled constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters.
But they remained split on the fate of the charter. It needs the approval of all the EU's 25 members to take effect but while a majority of countries see it as vital to reforming the bloc's creaking institutions, a minority would prefer to ditch it.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (left) talks to Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi as Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair looks on.
"They don't want to run the risk of a second failure," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters of the decision to leave its fate in the balance, calling for an end to speculation over whether the treaty was dead.
"Dead or alive is good for gangster films," he said. The charter, which provides for a long-term EU president and foreign minister and a simpler voting system taking more account of population size, suffered a major blow last year with "No" votes in referendums in France and the Netherlands.
Under a new draft of an Austrian presidency proposal to be approved on Friday, the EU will come up with a report in the first half of 2007 as "the basis for future decisions on how to continue the reform process".
It added that leaders agreed "that the necessary steps to that effect will have been taken during the second semester of 2008 at the latest", but also expressed hope that the process of ratifying the charter could continue and be completed.
They also vowed to press ahead in the meantime with delivering results on practical projects, from a common energy policy to a joint approach to migration, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel told a news conference late on Thursday. Diplomats said it was accepted that no decisions on the charter were possible until after Dutch and French elections in May 2007.