Next week, for example, the French senate is expected to pass a law dubbed the "three strikes and you are out" law, that would see illegal downloaders banned from the Internet after being caught three times by a government-appointed authority -- not a court.

"You can't force a national government to force its courts to act. The MEPs that voted for this amendment got carried away by fantasies that get us nowhere," said Pilar del Castillo, a right wing MEP from Spain who favored a compromise solution with the national governments that would have taken out all references to the courts.

So what to do? Accept a delay of at least six to nine months, while the new Parliament gets settled in? No one is terribly enthusiastic about that prospect, partly because there is no knowing what the political makeup of the new Parliament will be. Six to nine months could turn into 12 to 15 months if the new MEPs don't play ball.

One alternative is to try to isolate the troublesome amendment by breaking the package into its distinct legal parts, said Martin Selmayr, spokesman for the telecom commissioner, Viviane Reding.

The right of access to the Internet falls under what is called the framework directive. The new E.U.-wide telecom regulator that everyone agrees is needed is covered by a separate legal instrument called a regulation. Similarly privacy and data protection measures, which were also agreed to by all lawmakers, are covered by what has been dubbed the e-privacy directive.