Much of the haggling at Laeken may centre on who exactly this pivotal figure will be.
ECONOMIST: The Belgians, that is, now in the European Union��s chair
It was Mr Berlusconi's antics which ensured that the summit at Laeken ended in acrimony.
The Laeken summit has launched another big attempt to restructure the European Union.
They had a more federalist draft of the Laeken declaration watered down.
The fact that so much can already be safely predicted about Laeken is an indication of why the six-month presidency can be important.
ECONOMIST: The Belgians, that is, now in the European Union��s chair
Both camps can draw some comfort from the declaration at Laeken.
Rather than mar the Laeken declaration on Europe's future and sour the opening celebrations for the euro, Belgium's Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt ended the meeting without a resolution.
The convention's structure, approved at Laeken, should favour the integrationists.
The collapse means the issue will now have to be discussed at the Laeken summit on 13 December, just days before the launch of the euro as a cash currency.
Contrary to Laeken's aspirations, no powers have been repatriated.
Setting out its remit, the declaration from the EU summit at Laeken last December said Europe's citizens wanted "more results" and not "a European superstate or European institutions inveigling their way into every nook and cranny of life".
In Brussels, government spokesman Alain Gerlache announced that a high-ranking panel of advisers will help the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, to draw up a Laeken Declaration at the planned EU summit in Laeken, near Brussels, in December.
The so-called Laeken declaration of December 2001, which launched the process of writing a new constitution to replace the existing treaties, talked of popular concerns about too many powers being exercised at European rather than national level, about the lack of democratic scrutiny, and about European institutions and practices being rigid and hard to understand.
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