The rejection of the constitutional treaty by the voters of France and the Netherlands gives the European Union a chance to reconsider its future. Those in charge should realise that they have made a mistake. Their hope was for an EU that was more efficient and more democratic. But there is a conflict between these two objectives. Now it is possible to embark on a new journey that recognises this truth.

As my colleague, Peter Norman, notes in the concluding chapter of his excellent book on the constitutional treaty, at the Laeken summit in December 2001, which established the convention, the heads of governments of the EU "decided the Union was 'at a crossroads'.* They agreed it needed to become 'more democratic, more transparent and more efficient'."