EU:European Commission president José Manuel Barroso was forced into an embarrassing climbdown last night over plans to host an EU "mini-summit" in May.
Mr Barroso had planned to host a "brainstorming" session on the EU constitution with a select group of EU leaders next month in Sintra, Portugal.
He had invited EU leaders such as the British and Dutch prime ministers, Tony Blair and Jan Peter Balkenende, to try to create momentum for a new EU treaty to replace the constitution. The meeting was also likely to include the future French president.
But just hours after revealing details of the meeting and pledging to hold subsequent informal gatherings in 2008 and 2009, the commission issued a statement significantly reducing the scope of the meeting.
It also confirmed the invitations to Mr Blair and Mr Balkenende would be rescinded "to avoid speculations about European divisions".
In a statement, the commission said that in light of recent contacts the meeting would now only include current president of the European Council Angela Merkel, the future Portuguese and Slovenian presidencies, and the president of the European Parliament.
EU diplomats had privately expressed concerns that the meeting could cause more harm than good by dividing states into those that received invitations and those that did not.
It is believed that Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt - a keen supporter of a federal Europe - was particularly upset at being excluded from the meeting on May 12-13th.
Under standard protocol, member states rather than the commission organise this type of meeting.
Small states are particularly nervous about informal meetings that could be used to formulate important EU policies without their input.
However, the extension of the EU to 27 members has encouraged some politicians to promote the gathering together of smaller groups of states informally to discuss key questions.