EU leaders knee-jerk reactions following EU summit failure

Following the fiasco of negotiations concerning the EU Constitution, Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhosftadt, made a radical statement saying the future of the Union should consist of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The plans have so far not been supported by German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder who still insists on trying to convince "Polish friends" to change their minds. "Warsaw and Madrid were trying to destroy the draft version of the European Constitution and in turn the future of integration," claims German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Prime Minister Leszek Miller received compliments from conservative British journals. In the meantime, EU Commissioner Spokesman Michaeli Werner confirmed that he received a letter from the six largest EU countries, in which they demanded freezing EU expenditures from 2007. This means that Poland and Spain would receive less structural aid for poorer regions. The head of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, said that if the six countries wanted to create the most competitive economy in the world, then freezing budgets would work against such objectives. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A7; Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 8, 12) M.M.