EU:THE EU is headed for decline unless an "avant garde" is allowed to proceed with deeper integration on energy policy and in other areas, Jacques Delors and Joschka Fischer have warned following Ireland's No vote on Lisbon.
Mr Fischer, the former Green German foreign minister, warned that a second Irish No would kill off the Lisbon Treaty for good and urged the linking of a second vote to EU membership.
Mr Delors, the 82-year-old former commission president, said in a debate in the French Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday night: "We have to accept that some [countries] will proceed faster than others. If we all have to move ahead at the speed of the slowest nations, Europe is heading for a decline."
He said that the EU was sacrificing its credibility by still not being able to speak with one voice on foreign and energy policy. "If Europe continues like this, we will feed the cynicism of some of the world's big powers," said Mr Delors, who called for an EU "avant garde" in Le Monde eight years ago.
Mr Fischer made a similar call in a simultaneous speech at Berlin's Humboldt University in May 2000. He later softened that rhetoric but insisted the Irish vote might necessitate a two-speed Europe, although he was at pains to avoid that term.
Mr Fischer warned that even an Irish "yes" would not have solved the EU's legitimacy problem. But a second referendum "no" in Ireland would, he said, "kill off" the Lisbon Treaty for good.
Either way, he said, Europe cannot afford to lose any more time arguing about institutional reform. "Those who want to move ahead should be able to do so, those who do not shouldn't be obliged to," he said.
The former foreign minister suggested linking a second Irish referendum to membership of the union, reflecting a German position floated at last week's Brussels summit.
But neither Delors nor Fischer would back the official Franco-German position from last week's summit: both said they did not think putting EU enlargement on hold was the proper response to the institutional crisis.
Mr Fischer said he believed Ireland's No vote was an example of the "shabby game" national politicians play with the EU: agreeing to things in Brussels that they don't stand up for at home.