Divided They Stand.

Last week's Athens summit was to be a triumph of European unity after a century of wars, hot and cold. The formal admission of 10 new countries into the European Union went off without a hitch. But that only means the Continent's real problems will now come to the fore.

For decades, the EU has aspired to "speak with a single voice" on world affairs. For the past decade, the foreign ministries of member states have regularly and conscientiously consulted on major foreign-policy issues. They have achieved a few successes, such as overseeing the fragile settlements in the former Yugoslavia. But the brouhaha over Iraq exposed the fragility of their consensus. At Athens, new members Poland and the Czech Republic called for intensified foreign-policy action. But none of the current ones did. "Let the dead bury the dead," said one Western European ambassador. "Perhaps our children can revive political cooperation. Or our grandchildren."

As governments turn their attention from Iraq back home, even more intractable problems loom. The most urgent is the reform of EU institutions, all originally planned for six very similar countries, so that they can accommodate 25 states that vary widely in wealth and culture. If, for example, the EU continues to translate all speeches into all new languages, a minimum of 200 interpreters would be needed for every meeting. Such key Eurobodies as the Council and the Commission are slow and cumbersome with 15 members each. They will become bureaucratic monstrosities with 25, since each nation has the right to veto.

Come June, the grandly named Convention on the Future of Europe is supposed to come up with a solution to these and other problems, to be enshrined in a new European Constitution drafted by 105 "founding fathers" under the chairmanship of former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing. It has considered some radical ideas, such as the creation of a popularly elected president of Europe, a much smaller Commission and even a constitutional procedure for disgruntled members to resign from the Union ...