Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker broke the silence yesterday about the future of the EU's Lisbon treaty, the first European leader to admit it probably will not be in force as planned next year.
"I don't think the treaty will be in place in June, when the next European (parliamentary) elections will take place," he told a forum, voicing what many in Brussels have been saying in private.
"In order to make it enter in force in June 2009, the treaty would have to be ratified by all countries before the end of February," he added.
"It's not realistic to consider that this could be," said Juncker.
"So my guess would be that the treaty will enter into force around the first of January 2010."
Ireland sent shockwaves through Europe on June 12 when a referendum rejected the treaty. It was the only country in the 27-nation European Union to hold a referendum but all nations must ratify the text before it can come into force.
Apart from Ireland, only Sweden and the Czech Republic have yet to ratify the text, and will do so via the parliamentary route.
The crisis, which recalls the rejection of a full-scale constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005, ruined the original plan to get the treaty up and running by January 1, 2009.
The Lisbon Treaty, drawn up to replace the failed constitution, would introduce an EU president and new foreign policy supremo and cut the number of national vetoes in EU voting.
In recent days several European officials have admitted they do not expect the treaty to come into force until 2010, but Juncker is the first to say so as clearly on the record.
Until the Lisbon Treaty is ratified the EU's existing Nice Treaty, which came into effect in 2003, will continue to apply.
If the existing treaties are still in force in June 2009 the European parliament will have to be reduced from 785 deputies to 736.