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发帖数: 29846 | 1 (Reuters) - Germany wants to reignite a debate over creating an EU
constitution to strengthen the bloc's ability to fight off financial
troubles and counter-balance the rising influence of emerging economies,
Germany's foreign minister said on Friday.
Guido Westerwelle said the bloc's Lisbon treaty, drafted after Dutch and
French voters rejected a proposed constitution in 2005, was not enough to
keep European decision-making structures effective.
"We have to open a new chapter in European politics," Westerwelle told
reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Copenhagen. "We need more efficient decision structures."
The German minister presented the idea to his counterparts at the Copenhagen
meeting, during which they also discussed plans to run foreign policy more
cheaply. He said discussions on the issue of a new constitution should
continue in Berlin.
"I think we have to reopen the debate about a European constitution again,"
he said. "We have a good treaty, but we need a constitution ... There are
new centers of power in the world."
German government sources said representatives of several EU member states
would likely meet in the next few weeks for talks.
Driven by public frustration over financial bailouts for debt-stricken
states, Germany has fought hard over the last year to amend the EU's Lisbon
Treaty, a watered-down version of the 2005 constitution proposal.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had said in November that his
country wanted to see changes to the EU's Lisbon Treaty by the end of 2012
in order to lay the foundation for a common fiscal policy in the bloc.
Germany argued that change was needed to enshrine tougher fiscal discipline
and safeguard the bloc from further financial troubles.
For example, it wanted an amendment to incorporate tighter regional
oversight of government spending and allow the European Court of Justice to
strike down a member's laws if they violated fiscal discipline.
But Britain vetoed the plan in December in a row over safeguards for its
financial sector.
(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Justyna Pawlak and Sebastian Moffett) |
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