Brussels, 15/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - The German chancellor seized the opportunity provided by the European Council to call on Heads of State and Government to appoint sherpas responsible for discussions on the constitutional treaty. During her press conference, Angela Merkel recalled the need to reach an agreement on the constitutional text in order to allow the European Union to work more effectively and to take in new Member States in the future. “No one said a text should be reached under Portuguese Presidency”, she said, pointing out that it has always been said a text would be arrived at during French EU Council presidency in the second half of 2008. Wilhelm Schönfelder, Permanent Representative for Germany, had recently contended that it was necessary for an intergovernmental conference to agree on a new text during the second half of 2007, so that it may be ratified before the European elections in 2009.
On Thursday evening, Matti Vanhanen presented to his colleagues his “personal analysis” of the “confidential consultations” that he has been conducting over recent weeks in the different capitals. These consultations will be continued under German Presidency but the debate this evening has already shown that “most of the Member States” wish to safeguard the complete text of the constitutional treaty “in one package, with all parts” or “at least, most of the text”, the Finnish Prime Minister said. The 25 (or even 27) members of the EU also agree on the fact that review of the treaties is essential to allow the EU to work effectively and that it is inconceivable for the whole of the constitutional process to be started from scratch again, Mr Vanhanen stressed.
In answer to the German Presidency's reported intention to speed up the process if possible so that an agreement may be reached on the new text under Portuguese Presidency end 2007, Mr Vanhanen kept to the timetable agreed by the European Council in June this year, to have an agreement under French Presidency at the very latest. “I think we will need that amount of time”, he said.
After the report by Mr Vanhanen this evening at the European Council, “my personal feeling” is that “we can make real progress on the Constitution under German Presidency. The confidential work carried out by the Finnish prime minister will be very useful for the German Presidency”, said José Manuel Barroso. Some politicians, like Luxembourg's prime minister, do not want to join the 'over-optimistic camp' because they want to avoid an overly watered-down text. Asked about the next meeting of countries which have ratified the draft constitutional treaty, Jean-Claude Juncker said no country would be excluded and every country which thought the same way was welcome to attend. Upon the invitation of Jean-Claude Juncker and José Luis Zapatero, the foreign ministers of the eighteen countries that have ratified the treaty will meet in Madrid on 26 January 2007. Another meeting, including the nine countries which have not ratified the treaty, is scheduled in Luxembourg on 27 February 2007. Commenting that the German Presidency would pay attention to the interests of all Member States, Angela Merkel pointed out that Germany was one of the countries that has ratified the constitutional trea ty. (oj/hb)