Thursday sees the start of the EU budget summit in Brussels. In the wake of the recent failed EU constitution referenda in France and Holland and the tension between France and Britain over the UK rebate and agricultural subsidies,  the meeting is unlikely to be dull.

Unsurprisingly the German papers are full EU affairs and unusually come to a fair amount of consensus on the situation. The current state of Europe is viewed as somewhere between catastrophic and cataclysmic, the chances of agreement at the summit slim to none, and Blair's role in the whole affair as a couple of grades below demonic.

According to the financial daily Handelsblatt, the EU is experiencing three crises at once: a constitutional crisis, a financial crisis and a leadership crisis, the last one being the most problematic. The paper compares the Union to an oil tanker adrift in heavy seas. "The heads of state and government deserted their posts at the bridge, in cowardly fashion, even before the EU summit began," writes the commentator, adding that "national egos count more than European responsibility. This crisis is showing the rest of the world that the EU is incapable of cooperating, at least when it comes to economic matters." The paper continues by saying that there is no doubt that the constitution is dead and that political integration has hit a brick wall. The result, believes the paper, is that future membership of Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania now looks more unlikely than ever, making a solution to the current budget disagreement more important than ever. "The (European) community will only be able to carry out credible reforms if it provides opportunities for growth and employment. The budget should be building a solid base to enable this to happen. Instead EU leaders are clawing at each other over outdated agricultural subsidies and an ancient payment rebate."

The center-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung is equally scathing about the current state of the EU, calling today's budget summit a "council of the clueless." According to the paper, Europe's leaders are powerless in the face of their citizens' wrath and are "probably even secretly thankful that they can hide behind the current argument over the budget. The question of (the EU's) destiny, the issue which should be at the center of the meeting, is far too threatening." The commentator goes on to, rather pessimistically, say that even if the present budget issues were solved, the main questions remain to be answered. "How are we to proceed with the constitution and the further EU expansion? And how can we win back the support of Europe's citizens?" The paradox is that, although the EU is the only institution which can possibly help to preserve the European way of life, it has also become the scapegoat for all the frustrations caused by globalization, such as the export of jobs, cheap imports and dismantling of the social state. The paper believes that four reasons are to blame for this loss of faith: "arrogance, weak leadership, policy towards Turkey and the cumbersome constitution text." The only solution, the commentator concludes, is to "reduce the pace of change, even when it comes to further expansion to include Turkey and other countries, so that citizens have a chance to catch up."

The Financial Times Deutschland also sees the current debate as a crisis situation, describing it as "the most serious political earthquake the EU has had to deal with for decades," and places the blame for the constitution's failure squarely on the shoulders of Tony Blair, rather than those of Jacques Chirac. "Many people have forgotten that for a long time, Chirac had fought against the idea of holding a referendum in France over the constitution.... Chirac knew that a referendum would not only be a vote on the constitution but also a vote for or against globalization, for or against Poland, for or against the EU and above all: for or against him." The commentator claims that it was only when Blair shocked his own cabinet by announcing that a referendum would be held in Britain that Chirac was forced to follow suit. Blair's aim, the paper says, "was to defuse the Europe issue, always a thorny one in Britain, in the run-up to the election." Although the writer does not explain exactly why Chirac had to copy Blair (after all, Germany didn't), he says that "the (British) Prime Minister cold-heartedly sacrificed the EU constitution project for his own domestic advantage."