EU leaders should unblock the delays that have left discussions on a European company statute on the table for the last 30 years, the President of the European Parliament, Ms Nicole Fontaine, told EU leaders in her pre-summit address.

Such endless delay, the product of disagreements about worker participation in company management, "hardly enhanced the Council's [of Ministers] credibility and actually destroys jobs", she warned.

And she asked the leaders to move to introduce new "balanced" rules on company mergers. "Unregulated mergers, based merely on the concerns of dominant capitalism have a devastating effect on the Union's social cohesion." Ms Fontaine also stressed the importance of the speedy adoption of the directive on electronic commerce.