Calls for rapid EU overhaul at anniversary summit
By Madeline Chambers and Ingrid Melander 1 hour, 32 minutes ago
BERLIN (Reuters) - Supporters of closer European integration used the 50th anniversary of the EU on Saturday to press for a swift overhaul of the bloc that would prepare it for 21st century challenges such as terrorism and climate change.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting a weekend summit she hopes will generate new momentum for European unity and she said the EU's 490 million citizens urgently needed clarity about where the enlarged 27-nation bloc was headed.
"Our goal is show our citizens how to create a revitalised, effective
European Union before the next European parliamentary elections in 2009," Merkel said in her weekly Internet broadcast. "The people in Europe have a right to know this."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the bloc's post-war peace and prosperity an example for the world but said the EU was at a crossroads.
"In Europe, 2007 is the year when the past and the future meet," Barroso said at a gala concert in Brussels.
"Building on our great past, we must reaffirm that the Union is the best answer to 21st challenges such as globalisation, sustainable economic growth and competitiveness, political solidarity, energy supply, climate change, and security."
Public support for membership has declined in many states because of fears the EU is failing to protect workers from the impact of globalisation, eroding national identities and meddling excessively in national affairs.
To mark the anniversary of the founding Treaty of Rome, festivities are being staged around Europe and the once-divided German capital is hosting two days of street parties, all-night museum shows and open nightclubs.
On Sunday, Merkel will unveil the "Berlin Declaration," a statement on EU values and achievements she hopes will set the stage for a relaunch of the constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
The two-page declaration, seen by Reuters, sets a 2009 deadline for giving the bloc a "renewed common basis" -- code for institutional reforms meant to give the bloc a long-term president and foreign minister, a simpler decision-making system and more say for the European and national parliaments.
DEEP DIVISIONS
However, in a reflection of deep divisions about how to move forward, the declaration makes no specific reference to the constitution and avoids mentioning future enlargement -- one factor behind the French and Dutch "no" votes.
A poll taken for the Eurosceptical Open Europe think-tank found nearly half of citizens in the euro zone would rather go back to the national currencies they gave up in 2002.
The advent of Eurosceptical governments in Prague and Warsaw, as well as persistent public opposition in Britain, the Netherlands and France, mean Merkel's efforts to launch new treaty negotiations will be fraught with difficulty.
"The Netherlands believes that treaty changes are needed, but we don't need something called a constitution," Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told reporters in Berlin.
The Czech Republic is deeply sceptical about a new treaty while the Poles want to reopen a reform of the voting system that the vast majority of other member states support.
In a speech to European bishops on Saturday,
Pope Benedict accused the EU of apostasy for refusing to mention Christianity in the declaration.
The German chancellor and her 26 fellow EU leaders are to begin the celebrations at a gala concert on Saturday when Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in "Folk Songs" by Italian composer Luciano Berio and Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
Then German President Horst Koehler will host a dinner for the leaders at his Schloss Bellevue residence.
On Sunday morning, Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering will sign the declaration at a ceremony at Berlin's German Historical Museum.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Ratz, Madeline Chambers and Claudia Kade in Berlin and Philip Pullella in Rome)