Enlargement is the most obvious reason. But China, globalisation and Iraq also play their part. From the moment, just before the Iraq war, when President Chirac told the Eastern European applicants that they had “missed an opportunity to shut up”, it was clear that he expected them to play a junior role in the EU, respectful of the founder members’ lead.

That was not how they saw it. Poland made itself noisily felt even before joining, with its lobbying to protect its voting rights. On Iraq, the newcomers, on the whole, made clear their pro-American instincts.

This week several backed Britain, calling for thorough reform of the budget. They do not want to contribute to Britain’s rebate, and they want protection for the “structural funds” — the subsidies that their people still expect. Beyond that, they have shown clear free-market instincts, and their support is up for grabs.

Lord Kerr, the British civil servant who helped to draft the constitution, argues that they have had decades of experience of central planning and institutions doling out funds, and know that it does not work. Their priority is liberalisation, he believes, such as pressing ahead with a free market in services.

But others wonder whether, if their subsidies are at stake, the newcomers will stick to their free-market principles.

What is clear is that the old EU of 15 members did not take enough account of the imaginative change demanded by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the embrace of its satellite states. It appeared to think that on joining, those countries would automatically take on its attitudes, with gratitude.

Nor did they appear to think through the financial implications of expansion. Even as Germany struggled to cope with reunification, EU leaders encouraged new members to expect a torrent of cash equivalent to that received by Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland.

That is not going to happen. One of the strains apparent this week is that older members of the Union do not want to pay the sums that would be needed to extend the programmes to the new entrants.

The EU has also been slow to realise how quickly the world is coming to the walls of Fortress Europe. Peter Mandelson, the Trade Commissioner, has spent the past two weeks trying to avoid a trade row with China and to insulate Europe from the wave of Chinese shoes and other imports pouring in.

At the broadest level, most of the strains that have stalled Europe come from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of China and other competitors. Not surprisingly, they have come to a head at once. If Europe had looked up from its self-absorbed summits, it might have seen them coming.

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