Jean-Luc Dehaene, a Belgian who is one of the convention's two vice-presidents, has proposed a European foreign minister.

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Mr Dehaene was most countries' choice to take the presidency last time round.

ECONOMIST: Europe has to scratch its head

Mr Dehaene, a Christian Democrat, seems likely, along with his Socialist coalition friends, to find some egg on his face.

ECONOMIST: Belgium sinks in deeper

Another possibility is that Jean-Luc Dehaene, prime minister of Belgium, who faces an election in June, might be pressed into service.

ECONOMIST: Europe has to scratch its head

Mentions French neurologist Joseph Jules Dejerine, Stanislas Dehaene, and Charles Scribner, Jr.

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The coalition government of Jean-Luc Dehaene survived a no-confidence motion in parliament.

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In experiments to determine how the brain makes sense of words, neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene rotated letters and added additional spaces to text, among other things.

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"It is thanks to the Franco-German cooperation he maintained with Chancellor Kohl that during his 14 years in office such enormous progress has been made in Europe, " Dehaene said.

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However former Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, who now sits as an MEP, said the domestic crisis meant that the acting Belgian government could give it's "full attention" to the presidency.

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It wanted a weaker president than Mr Dehaene.

ECONOMIST: Europe has to scratch its head

Mr Dehaene's government has courted widespread irritation.

ECONOMIST: Belgium sinks in deeper