Brussels, 23/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - “The effect of making a new treaty will above all be punitive. It will put European construction at serious risk. The Germans have to understand that the other countries need the time and the means to become part of globalisation and for each to have its own place therein in full respect for a degree of diversity”, suggests the former Commission president Jacques Delors in an interview which will appear in the weekly Challenges on Thursday 25 November. Delors says that German Chancellor Angela Merkel “has gone on the offensive on the future of Europe, and fully realises that reform of the treaties is needed to allow further transfer of sovereignty”. However, he is critical of Germany's proposals: “In my view, they could destroy the Community method which has, thus far, taken Europe forward. (…) Germany has just proposed that the president of the Commission be elected by universal suffrage, arguing that this would give Europe a face. But it would be a face with no arms, as the Commission would no longer have its monopoly on the right of initiative, which is its driver”. Delors is not opposed to the idea of making the European Central Bank the lender of last resort for states in order to avoid the debt crisis spreading. (LC/transl.rt)