Brussels, 01/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and President-in-Office of the European Council, hopes to reach an agreement between the 27 EU member states in June on the roadmap for adoption of a new treaty. On Thursday, she expressed the hope that a reference to Europe's Christian roots would be included in the text. “The secular period was an important one but I see us living in a changed world in which it is up to the politicians and political texts to state their spiritual roots more clearly”, Merkel said during a speech on Europe in Berlin before the members of her party, the Christian Democrat Union (CDU). “If we are honest with ourselves, we often do not have the courage to clearly state what our beliefs are and this makes us less credible compared to others, who have different beliefs and values”, she went on to say, according to AFP. Ms Merkel went on: “I cannot deny that I would have preferred there to be a more obvious reference to God based on Christian ideas in the Constitution”. She nonetheless added that the European Union was not a “Christian club” and stressed the need to respect the other religions within the EU. (hb)