Jacques Chirac, French president, on Friday admitted having “failed” in his gamble of putting the European constitution to French voters in a referendum two years ago.

In a candid assessment of his 12-year rule as he bowed out of almost certainly his last European summit, Mr Chirac said of voters’ rejection of the constitutional treaty: “In retrospect, maybe I did not do enough to prevent what was a bad thing for Europe and a bad thing for France.”