EU to delay charter ratification

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BRUSSELS -- The embattled European Union said yesterday it will postpone the ratification of its troubled constitution beyond the previously set November 2006 deadline, but leaders failed to agree on whether to freeze the process for now.

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told reporters that all members agreed to the extension.

Also, a bitter dispute erupted over the 25-member union's 2007-13 budget, as heads of state and government gathered here for a two-day summit.

Luxembourg, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the month, formally proposed a pause in voting for or against the constitution for as long as a year, after the French and the Dutch rejected the proposed constitution three weeks ago.

But France, Germany and Belgium insisted that all EU members have their say on the document -- either in a referendum or parliamentary vote -- with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt saying a pause would send the wrong signal to European citizens.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw countered, saying the postponement of ratification already means that "the prospects of reviving [the constitution] get less and less the longer the period of time."

Britain has already put on hold its plan for a referendum, and Sweden said yesterday its parliamentary vote will not take place in December, as previously scheduled.

"I think many countries which are planning referendums will say they will postpone them," Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson told reporters.

Other countries expressed similar support for postponing a ratification vote.

Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said he would recommend delaying a referendum on the EU constitution until the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007.