After six months with Silvio Berlusconi at the wheel, the European Union is like a battered car that is due for a re-fit. The EU uses a time-share system for its common institutions. It allows a different driver to take the wheel of the machine every six months, with each member-state taking turns to hold the EU presidency and chair its meetings. Mr Berlusconi, Italy's debonair and super-rich prime minister, drove the EU's ageing machine badly - some say recklessly - over rough terrain during the past half-year.
Flashing his trademark smile, he declared during the Brussels summit in mid-December that his period as leader of the EU had been a "triumph".
But the next day the 25 EU leaders left amid talk of "catastrophe" and "crisis".
Secret formula?
The talks broke down when Mr Berlusconi, their chairman, admitted that he had failed to find a basis for agreement on the historic task at hand, accepting the text of a future EU constitution.
None of the other leaders blamed Mr Berlusconi in public, but among themselves many were fuming. One participant said it was the worst-prepared summit that anyone could remember.
Chris Patten, the European commissioner in charge of external affairs, says the best gloss that can be put on the
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A fiasco but not a disaster 