PARIS, Aug 29 (Xinhua) -- France's European affairs minister Catherine Colonna said on Tuesday that the European Union (EU) was in a worrying state and warned that the construction of bloc faced "dilution".

"The functioning of the Union, and largely the state of the Union seems alarming to me," she told a gathering of French ambassadors.

The EU was "suffering from a kind of wasting disease, a general fatigue that bodes ill for its ability to answer the needs of its peoples," she said.

"Can the European Union carry on at this pace for long? Can Europe even take crucial decisions any more?" she asked.

"We need a more fundamental start, if we are to avoid the risk of a collapse of European construction, a slow and inexorable dilution," she said.

The 25-member EU faced many questions after the French and Dutch last year rejected by referendum a European constitutional treaty aimed at reforming the body's decision-making processes.