premise: "It was strongly underlined that the pace of accession depends on the acceeding countries ability to comply with the rules," he said, late Thursday after a summit dinner focused on future expansions.
  "The criteria must be strictly applied to," he said.
  A key to the problem has been the failure of the European constitution, endorsed by EU leaders but which was rejected by French and Dutch voters last year, sparking the bloc's worst-ever crisis.
  The constitution was meant to streamline the EU's institutions as the bloc grows, but while there have been tentative moves to discuss alternatives, no real solution to the blueprint for Europe's future is expected before 2009.
  Vanhanen said that the leaders, in confidential talks, had agreed that there was no point in throwing away the painstakingly assembled text.
   What caused the crisis?
hypothesis: the failure of the European constitution