Ambitions deflated as EU delays decisions European leaders were at pains to insist at the end of a two-day EU summit that the long-promised transformation of the eurozone from a simple currency union into something resembling a centralised fiscal and economic bloc was still in the works. "No door was closed on steps towards deeper [integration] and we will keep moving forward," said José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president. But in the summit's corridors, it was hard to escape European officials lamenting the scale and rapidity with which those ambitions had been deflated. "They are underperforming again," said one senior EU official involved in the discussions. This is not the first time it's happened. Advocates of centralisation have argued that without further integration, the eurozone is doomed to repeat the current crisis. No currency union has survived in the past without central budgeting and economic policymaking, they argue. Only three weeks ago, Mr Barroso unveiled an ambitious 51-page blueprint that foresaw, as early as next year, the start of a centralisation process that would give Brussels control over national economic programmes and a centralised budget that would eventually have the kind of taxing, spending and borrowing powers now reserved for national governments. Herman Van Rompuy, who as European Council president chairs EU summits, produced a similar though slightly scaled-back plan that presented a clear timeline, complete with dates, for the steps the eurozone should take over the next two years. But after another of their notorious all-night sessions, national leaders stripped out any commitments the EU's two presidents had hoped to get on their plans. Gone was a commitment, sought by Mr Van Rompuy, endorsing detailed reform contracts between Brussels and all eurozone governments, similar to those now only forced upon bailout countries. Plans to start an embryonic eurozone budget were all but abandoned. A firm timetable for the road ahead, included in early drafts of summit communiqués distributed to national capitals by Mr Van Rompuy, was gone entirely. Instead, leaders committed only to address the issues again in six months. "We have achieved some things, but just as before, we have a tough time ahead," said Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who many officials pointed to as the chief applier of the brakes. It was not supposed to be this way. At the height of last June's market panic, the same EU leaders promised to agree a "specific and time-bound road map" for transforming the eurozone by the end of the year, and the December summit was targeted as the high-stakes gathering where the future would be set. The British government even worried that it would be forced to cast a veto here because plans would become so ambitious they would require immediate and far-reaching changes in the EU's governing treaties. After feverish work by both Mr Barroso's and Mr Van Rompuy's staff, there has indeed been one signal achievement: the first concrete step towards a eurozone "banking union" - a Frankfurt-based common supervisor for the region's largest financial institutions. But on fiscal and economic issues, the path ahead remains as vague as it was in June. President François Hollande sought to rebut the notion that leaders had hollowed out the plans, arguing that France and others supporting deeper integration could still push for a true eurozone budget and other joint policies, if they chose to. But he acknowledged that the debate had been shaped by political realities about how much control national governments wished to cede to Brussels. The dissipation of market pressure has also sucked much of the urgency out of the debate, officials said. "There's a political issue: there's a number of countries that do not want to transfer any further competencies to the EU," he said. There are even a number of countries who would like to step back from the competencies already transferred to the EU, and you will know who I'm talking about. He even conceded that a robust eurozone budget - long Paris's priority in remaking the currency union - may never come. Told that Ms Merkel had suggested the size of any such fund may be less than €20bn, Mr Hollande gamely replied: "I would take it! I'll take everything. In many ways, national leaders have thrown the ball back into Mr Barroso's court. As head of the institution tasked with initiating EU legislation, the commission president must decide whether to stick to his original timetable and present the first steps towards a budget with strict control contracts despite national reticence. Aides said they expect him to keep up the pressure, potentially issuing a "green paper" offering more detailed plans on how such a "fiscal capacity" could be organised and operate - a way to stimulate debate short of introducing firm legislation. "The commission will keep driving the ambition," said Mr Barroso.