Not the time for a sordid squabble

Editorial says: Jacques Chirac, President of France, and Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister, seem to be spoiling for a fight. The crisis over ratifying the Constitutional Treaty for Europe is in danger of becoming entangled in a quite unconnected wrangle over future financing of the EU budget, including the fraught subject of the UK budget rebate. If it does, the EU summit of 16-17 June 2005 could end up as a futile exercise in recrimination instead of a moment for profound reflection on the future of the Union.