Ratifiers must give the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemicals Weapons, the convention's overseer, details of any weapons they possess and of potentially dangerous chemicals used in their civilian industry.

ECONOMIST: Chemical weapons

The broader problem is that EU leaders had assumed that potential non-ratifiers would either be small countries, such as Denmark or the Czech Republic whose arms might be twisted into voting again or a more sceptical country such as Britain.

ECONOMIST: Dead, but not yet buried | The