The paper argues that the collapse of the European Council Summit in Brussels on 13 December 2003 and the failure to agree the new constitutional treaty throws the Union into a major and unprecedented crisis. Attempts by many EU politicians to talk the severity of the crisis down will not help...

The paper examines the position of the Czech Government at the final session of the Intergovernmental Conference (ICG) on 12 December 2003 in Brussels. The Czech Government was keen to show that the Czechs did not have any "red lines" in the negotiations. The issue of full representation in the...