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However, the scope for such mayhem should be reduced because EU leaders agreed last December to move all summits to Brussels when the EU enlarges, some of them from next year.But the alarm over the gap between the EU and Europe’s 375 million people goes further than a concern over summit security.Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian premier, whose country takes over the rotating presidency of the EU in two weeks’ time, sees an effort to address public concerns as vital to the success of future referendums ­ in Ireland on the Nice Treaty, and potentially in Britain on entry into the euro.The Belgians plan to produce a wide-ranging declaration at the Laeken summit in December, beginning with the first blunt analysis of its type of the failings of the EU.No previous EU document has ever dwelt on Europe’s failings and the Laeken declaration is expected to focus on a lack of efficiency and transparency, the lack of democratic accountability and the EU’s current crisis of identity.Mr Verhofstadt will lay down several other objectives for 2004. Europe will have to address the question of whether it wants to produce a new constitution, and how it intends to divide up which powers and authorities the EU should have, and which should stay with member states.. The former king of Bulgaria looked poised to return to power – though not to the throne – in democratic elections yesterday. The former king of Bulgaria was yesterday preparing for a return to power ­ though not to the throne ­ in the country’s democratic elections.Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Ivan Kostov, conceded last night that he had suffered a “heavy election defeat” at the hands of a party led by Simeon II, who was deposed by Communists in 1946.Preliminary results indicated a big margin of victory with the former king’s party winning 46 per cent of the vote. The ex-monarch entered politics only in April, but his party, the National Movement for Simeon II, has taken Bulgaria by storm The party openly campaigns with him as a cult figure.

Whether Simeon II will become Prime Minister or remain in the background is not yet clear. He has already indicated he is prepared to work with other parties in coalition.”After today, Bulgaria is different,” Simeon told a news conference last night.. As a frightened nine-year-old child, Simeon II was bundled into a car and driven to Istanbul. It was to be the last time he saw his native Bulgaria for 50 years. As a frightened nine-year-old child, Simeon II was bundled into a car and driven to Istanbul.

It was to be the last time he saw his native Bulgaria for 50 years.With Red Army units stationed in Bulgaria, the country’s new Communist rulers had held a referendum. In what is widely believed to have been a rigged plebiscite, the people voted to abolish the monarchy and depose the boy king.His father, the hugely popular King Boris III, had died suddenly and mysteriously in 1943. Simeon was crowned at the age of six in the midst of the Second World War. After the Communist coup in 1944, his three regents, including the boy’s uncle, were executed.From Istanbul, Simeon sailed to Egypt, into a life of exile. He lived in Egypt for six years, and studied at Victoria College, a British school in Alexandria.

In 1951, he was granted asylum in Spain, where he became a close friend of the Spanish king. He attended a military academy in Pennsylvania.The former king has a taste for expensive suits ­ but he paid for them himself. He has led a successful career as a business-man in Spain, under the name Simeon Saxe-Coburgotski, and returned to Bulgaria for the first time in 1996, to a rapturous welcome. He speaks fluent if old-fashioned Bulgarian and once said: “Exile is the best schooling for a king, provided he can return.”. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, tried yesterday to dispel fears that President Bush was on the point of abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia, saying that America was still able to conduct research on a missile defence system without breaching the treaty.

The American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, tried yesterday to dispel fears that President Bush was on the point of abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia, saying America was still able to do research on a missile defence system without breaching the treaty. He also indicated Russia had not ruled out talks on amending the 39-year-old treaty to permit tests. But Mr Powell also left little doubt Mr Bush would be ready to proceed unilaterally if US researchers found that the treaty was inhibiting progress on missile defence. Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Mr Powell said of the treaty: “We cannot allow its constraints to bind American technology.”And he denied abrogating the treaty would lead to a new arms race. “If there is no ABM treaty tomorrow, there is no nation that’s going to run out and start making nuclear weapons,” he said. Mr Powell was speaking the day after the American and Russian presidents had their first meeting in Slovenia. Mr Bush’s relationship with Russia had got off to a rocky start, with some tough talking from Mr Bush and reciprocal expulsions of alleged spies.