They had a more federalist draft of the Laeken declaration watered down.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

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.

CNN: Jose Maria Aznar

This was made even more explicit in the Laeken Declaration.

BBC: Big changes ahead for EU

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.

BBC: Belgium's EU agenda

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.

ECONOMIST: European Union

Both camps can draw some comfort from the declaration at Laeken.

ECONOMIST: The European Union summit

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".

BBC: Analysis: EU gets down to business