The European Union has decided to leave the unresolved Constitution to lie for a one-year period before reviving it in the hope of hammering out a deal.

To understand the issue of drafting a Constitution, people must understand that it is mainly geared towards making the EU's political body one coherent voice on the international stage.

This would mean trimming down bureaucracy by installing an EU President and a Foreign Minister so the bloc can come up with one voice and identifiable faces in view of world politics.

This in itself is positive, one of the EU's main problems is that too many cooks spoil the broth. The EU is also keen on introducing the Constitution to act as a counterweight to the effect of globalisation which could lead to various European states, particularly the smaller ones, to be emarginated as the race gets tougher and faster.

Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a meeting held yesterday: "Europe is not the cause of globalization - Europe is the precondition" for dealing with it," he said. "This huge economic and social area can manage globalization. We need to make this much clearer ... we need to lead this discussion with much more self-confidence."

Meanwhile, it has also become clear that European citizens, particularly the 'old' 15 bloc, are disillusioned with the union, mainly due to the mass accession of 10 new countries, of which Malta is one, in 2004.

This expansion has led the people of 'older' Europe to feel somewhat resentful to the fact that so much of the union's budget is now going to the 'new' bloc. We, of course are one of the countries that has benefited, but the earlier members' citizens are disgruntled because they interpret that since the budget has been refocused, their own every day issues are being ignored.

Many believe that accession has meant that EU budget money that would otherwise be spent internally, or been allocated to them, is being spent solely in the new member states. This is, of course, not true. But when one looks at opinion polls in France, the UK and the Netherlands, it is clear that the people want their own issues, such as unemployment, rising crime and other social issues, looked at and sorted out by the EU.

This of course, rings a bell for Malta. Didn't our country blare the clarions when we felt that we were not getting enough help from the union in the fight against irregular immigration? Of course we did, and that is what the people of Europe will keep doing.

The Germans believe that it will take two years to hammer out some form of deal by 2009. They have also suggested that the EU adopts a model similar to the German one in that it works on a principle of basic law rather than a Constitution. But, one feels that this would not be the best idea.

The people of France and the Netherlands have rejected the Constitution in referenda. But would skirting around the issue by implementing the same decisions in another manner be more antagonistic to the people?

The people of Europe complain that the bloc is too distant to its citizens. They have heard so much of the vaunted Constitution that they will only react badly when decisions are pressed into force in a different way. They will feel cheated and vindicated in their belief that Europe is distant to its people. No. The only way forward here is to keep healthy debate and inform the people, especially those who rejected the call in the referenda, so they can hopefully come to realise that the future of Europe is that of a closer and more integrated continent. Bypassing the people is but a means to an end.