The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, has said a two-speed Europe may become inevitable if EU leaders fail to agree on a new constitution this year.
Talks on the constitution broke down at a summit meeting in Brussels last month when the leaders failed to agree on future voting powers in an expanded union.
In an interview with an Italian newspaper, Mr Prodi said that if the problem was not resolved this year, then some countries could, and perhaps should, take the initiative to go forward.
He said these countries might be founder members of the EU or, preferably, a mixture of older and newer members that share the same view of Europe.
