Brussels, 02/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is not optimistic that a solution to the institutional deadlock will be found by 2009. “I would not cast this date in stone and I don't think that the Commission president would do so either. It won't be easy,” he said in an interview published in the Irish Times of 2 February. He believes the gap between European leaders and citizens is huge. “I have heard ministers and academics and the elite speak about this (Constitution), but I have not seen citizens become more, what I would call, integrationist or more European. … And we have to go back to the people to ask them to ratify this (text),” he said. He also denounces the hypocrisy of the fervent supporters of the treaty, who are looking first and foremost to satisfy national economic interests, yet balk at the reality of the internal market. The same ones, he went on, who speak of the need for a new Constitution in their own member states seem to be against the free and open market or harmonised rules or regulation which would really create a genuinely integrated Europe. He referred particularly to the infringement procedures currently against Italy (for the Autostrade-Albertis case) and Spain (for the E.ON-Endesa case). Unlike Ireland, these two countries have already ratified the Constitutional Treaty. (mb)