KEY POINTS:
Leaders of the European Union are girding themselves for an international punchup as they attempt to haul their zombie treaty, a proposed EU constitution, out of a two-year limbo.
The draft charter has been in the land of the politically undead after it was rejected by referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005.
But the change of political leadership in Italy, Germany, France and, shortly, Britain, has brought with it momentum for another go. A two-day summit starting today will be the first indicator of its future, but the signs are not good.
Fresh from her wrangle at the Group of Eight (G8) summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been doing the rounds of EU capitals to identify the obstacles and try to whittle them down, with the hope that the Brussels summit will endorse a "road map" towards a new treaty. A consensus has emerged that the former proposed constitution - a sprawling compendium of rights, principles, responsibilities and duties drawn up under the draughtsmanship of former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing - will have to be simplified.
Merkel's smart move has been to revive the initiative as a "reform treaty" that would amend existing ones rather than be an overarching constitution. There is no reference to EU totems such as the gold-star-on-blue flag and the Ode to Joy European anthem, and the word "constitution" is avoided.
That will reassure Eurosceptics, and the "reform treaty" approach will also help countries such as Britain and France to ratify the deal by parliament rather than by referendum.
But Merkel must also satisfy the 18 countries which have already ratified the constitution. So she has had to pick threads out of a fragile tapestry which could unravel at any point as countries revive - or revise - their position.
"Merkel has a tricky balancing act," said a European diplomat. "If she gives too much ground to some, she risks losing the others."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, said: "The President is going to Brussels fully aware that this European Council will be particularly difficult.
"It is not certain that we will reach an agreement. Some parties still have strong reservations."
The biggest priority is to overhaul the EU's decision-making institutions, which have been sandbagged by the addition of 12 new members over the past three years.
But Poland is playing tough. When it joined the club in 2004, Poland got many more votes compared to its size (a population of 38 million people) under the EU's usual system of qualified majority voting, or QMV. Under QMV, votes in the Council of Ministers - the top decision-making body - are apportioned to a country on the basis of population.
Poland fiercely opposes the method of calculating QMV that appears in the draft constitution, as it would lose heavily while Germany, its neighbour, would gain in clout.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a pair of conservative populists, have been under pressure to yield ground in the runup to the summit. Their only ally is the Czech Republic.
"No one can count on our acceptance. And the extreme solution will be the veto," Prime Minister Kaczynski said in remarks that earned him a rebuff from European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso. Without naming names, but clearly pointing at Poland, Barroso said: "Please avoid appearing as blocking. This is not intelligent, this is not in your interest. Defend your positions, but don't come with these red lines and vetoes."
Other sticking points in Brussels include a Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was signed in 2000, and which Merkel wants to be made legally binding. This is opposed by some countries, including Britain, which says that it would interfere with its labour laws.
Britain also refuses to cede further authority to Brussels in areas such as immigration and policing.
If Merkel gets her way, the summit will issue a mandate giving the broad lines for a new treaty, the details of which would be thrashed out by an intergovernmental conference. Its aim is for ratification in 2009.
Far From A Cast-Iron Constitution
* The European Constitution is an international treaty intended to create a new constitution for the European Union.
* It was signed in 2004 by representatives of the EU member states but had to be ratified. France and the Netherlands rejected it in referenda.
* Its main aims were to replace an overlapping set of existing treaties that comprise the Union's current constitution, and establish uniform human rights and streamline decision-making.
* Some countries want the new treaty to be a copy of the original, with only minor changes, but support is growing for a stripped down version which would be considered more likely to be ratified.
* The constitution will be at the top of the agenda when EU leaders meet in Brussels today and tomorrow.
