EU's oil, food and treaty woes crowd summit

By Paul Taylor, European Affairs Editor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders meeting in Brussels this week will grapple with unrest over soaring oil and food prices, a slowing economy and the political fallout from Ireland's rejection of an EU reform treaty.

A week after Irish voters dealt a severe blow to plans to overhaul the bloc's creaking institutions to cope with expansion from 15 to 27 member states, leaders will grapple on Thursday and Friday with the consequences of the stunning defeat.

"This was to be a nice quiet summit before the non-stop fireworks of a hyperactive French presidency. Now we have an atmosphere of gloom and crisis," a senior EU official said.

Truck drivers and farmers plan to bring their lorries and tractors to Brussels streets on Wednesday to press demands for EU action to bring down crippling fuel prices, two weeks after a protest by fishermen in the EU capital turned violent.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who will chair the summit, said the EU might eventually grant Ireland the kind of opt-outs given to Britain and Denmark in the past from the euro currency to help it allow the treaty to come into force.

"It is possible in the future, although it is only one of the possibilities," Jansa told Reuters in an interview, stressing it was too soon to expect any such move this week.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen stressed his country must not be rushed, telling parliament in Dublin: "I will also be stressing the need to consider what has happened and its implications in a calm, constructive and collective manner.

"I will underline there can been no question of hasty answers or quick fixes," he said.