STILL smarting from its last crisis, the European Union dispatched its 25 most powerful men and women, and their large retinues, to Brussels for a summit with a simple goal: get the show going again. But observers were left wondering just what had been achieved.

Even Hans-Gert Pöttering, the arch-federalist leader of the largest group in the European Parliament, declared the EU summit to be “unspectacular”. Journalists were left swooning in gratitude to President Chirac of France for providing the only noteworthy event: storming out of the summit in protest at a fellow Frenchman speaking in English.

At the European Council, the most powerful body in the EU, the 25 assembled heads of government were reduced to debating the details of a new energy policy, and remaking old pledges to get their stagnant economies going again. The most concrete decision taken was to impose sanctions against the leadership of Belarus in punishment for last week’s rigged election.

Europe’s first common energy policy was meant to be the setpiece of the show, proving to its people that Europe was moving again after French and Dutch voters rejected the European constitution.

And, in broad outline, the plan to cut prices, ensure security of supply and tackle global warming was agreed, prompting Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian Chancellor, and chairman of proceedings, to declare: “Be sure, ten years from now, if you look back to what happened today, this was a very substantial debate leading to a total change of the energy policy in the European Union.”

But, although the EU leaders agreed to join forces in negotiating gas and oil contracts with third countries such as Russia, they all insisted on their national rights to decide their sources of power. They turfed out an “energy Nato pact”, which would have required them to come to each other’s rescue if any member faced shortages, and slapped down a proposed European energy regulator.

Instead of firm commitments, they embraced a welter of easily breakable targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency. They embraced other targets — for example to create ten million jobs by 2010 — as they reaffirmed widely discredited pledges to make their economies the most competitive in the world.

The summit had been proceeded by mounting concern in London and Brussels at the wave of protectionism that is engulfing the EU. Earlier commitments to give consumers the right to buy energy from any supplier by 2007 are being frustrated by governments dragging their heels.

As if to prove the point, a bold plan to create a single market in services had to be so watered down because of French fears of cheap Eastern European labour that critics say it will have limited effect.

As a last resort, Tony Blair held up his own home as a shining example for the rest of Europe to follow: “The electricity in No 10 Downing Street is supplied by a French company. The water by a German company. The gas is supplied by four companies, three of which are not British.”

Times Recommends

• A track to Shangri-La: Bhutan gets first rail link
• Avatar takings hit $600m in ten days
• Bomb disposal squad is Times’s Team of the Year