Germany's ambition to salvage large parts of the European Union constitutional treaty may provoke a serious rift between Britain and its partners. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown may be heading for a collision over what to do about the German plan. But the general view in Britain seems to be that EU treaty change is irrelevant. Indeed, something of a consensus stretches from Treasury officials to Conservative leaders to The Economist: they say the EU should forget about treaty change and focus on crucial challenges such as completing the Doha trade round, revising the EU budget, reducing carbon emissions and economic reform.

However, the EU will be incapable of tackling these important issues unless it first clinches a deal on treaty change.