Karl Lamers considers inevitable the establishment of a core group willing to take integration further and creation of a European economic government

Brussels, 03/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - Karl Lamers, foreign policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU group in the Bundestag, at a conference sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Brussels, spoke of an "imminent crisis" in European integration and urged the EU to find strategic solutions at an early date for a number of fundamental challenges, in particular institutional reform making possible the future enlargement of the Union under proper conditions. According to Mr Lamers (who, in his famous paper published in 1994 with Wolfgang Schäuble, launched debate on the establishment of a core group of European countries prepared to move forward together), the formation of a core group of States willing to take integration forward is inevitable. "If not possible within the framework of the EU Treaty, it will probably happen outside the scope of the Treaty", he observed. The problems raised by institutional reform, like the other main problems of the day (see below) are due to the lack of leadership in the EU, said Mr Lamers, who noted that the Franco-German "engine" is not producing results and that Paris and Bonn must join forces to deal with the intellectual crisis paralysing the EU.

According to Mr Lamers, the major challenges of the future are:

• The ongoing weakness of the euro. The weakness of the euro "is the weakness of Europe", stated Karl Lamers, noting that the Heads of Government "so far have not dared give their ambitious project the instruments it needs". In his view, the only solution to the current crisis is the creation of an economic government capable of taking binding decisions for the euro area;
• The creation of a foreign policy and military identity, all the more necessary given the United States' plans to deploy in the future a national missile defence (NMD). Europe must formulate its own position on NMD, stated Mr Lamers;
• The next enlargement of the EU. Mr Lamers observed that more and more people are expressing the view that enlargement is unrealistic under the conditions foreseen today and he considers that, working on the outcome of the negotiation on Agenda 2000, this enlargement would not be possible before 2006.