Conventieleider: Komende vier jaar moeilijk voor de EU (en)

In an interview with French daily Le Monde, one of the Convention's Vice-Presidents, Jean-Luc Dehaene has warned, "after the moment of joy on 1 May 2004, when the new Member States enter the EU, we will have four or five difficult years".

Mr Dehaene also hinted at a two-speed EU if this weekend's negotiations fail.

He said, "if there is disagreement, we will have to take the initiative fairly quickly. The situation might be similar to that which followed the failure of the European defence community in 1954, when the six [founding members of the EU] formed an intergovernmental committee ... which led to the Treaty of Rome".

But he stressed, "let's start by trying to avoid a defeat".

Think European

The problem with the intergovernmental conference (IGC), as Mr Dehaene sees it, is that the Member States are too preoccupied with their own national interests, as opposed to the Convention, which adopted a European approach.

He also sees the inexperience of the new Member States as a problem, saying, "the difficulty is that there are states sitting around the table who have not yet experienced how the union functions from the inside".

And he does not rule out a delay in reaching an agreement. He says, "the Heads of State and Government will have to decide whether there has been sufficient progress to approve the treaty or whether they would prefer to leave the conclusion to later, in the hope that experience will allow them to achieve a better result".

"Legally, we do not need a new treaty. The text required for enlargement was signed at Nice".