Brussels, 18/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Angela Merkel, fresh from her re-election as German Chancellor, speaking on Wednesday 18 December before the new German parliament, called for a sea change in the European treaties. The head of a new “grand coalition” government, made up of Conservatives (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD), since Tuesday, Merkel expressed her wishes that “Germany will continue to play a responsible role and be a driving force behind European integration”. In order to drive Europe forward, “we are among those who say that, if the legal bases are not enough, then we need to move the treaties on”, she said, adding that she did not want Germany to take on the role of the country “which stands in the way of certain developments”. “Anybody who wants more Europe needs to be prepared to change the legislation on certain competencies”, she said.
Merkel went on to stress the urgent need to fight youth unemployment and to build a “socially just” Europe. In her opinion, however, the only way out of crisis is to “remedy the causes” which brought this situation about (financial indiscipline, poor competitiveness of certain countries, failure to abide by European rules). She spoke of “initial progress” at economic level in the struggling eurozone countries, even though the “crisis is not yet overcome”. The chancellor argued in favour of binding commitments on the part of the European governments to the European Commission on the implementation of reforms, even suggesting possible financial assistance to the best-performing countries.
France is among the countries which are opposed to any modification of the treaties that lay down the institutional architecture of the EU. It argues for concrete progress (as on banking union) in the framework of the existing treaties, postponing till later any institutional step forward. President Hollande has stressed on several occasions that he had no wish to re-negotiate the European treaties. (LC/transl.fl)