25/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On 25 June, 42 prominent European politicians (including former Finnish president Martti Ahtissari, former Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer and Hungarian-American financier George Soros) signed a statement calling for a genuine EU common foreign and security policy to be put in place. Instead of once again becoming bogged down in constitutional crisis after the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU should forge ahead and speak with a single voice on the international stage, say the signatories, all members of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). “The EU cannot afford to become a symbol of weakness or decline,” the statement reads. To resolve the major international problems (Iran, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa, climate change etc), a strong Europe is needed, not an EU paralysed by institutional problems, they say. (http://www.ecfr.eu ) (H.B./transl.rt)