APRIL 2007

Merkel vows to continue confidential EU constitution strategy

UPDATE:German chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested to the European Parliament that the body itself could organise a public discussion on the EU constitution, in a response to criticism of the secretive character of her
efforts to revice the treaty.

http://euobserver.com/9/23806/?rk=1

25.03.2007 - 20:09 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BERLIN - German leader Angela Merkel has said she will continue to apply her strategy of reviving the EU constitution by holding confidential talks with national officials, despite criticism that the strategy impedes democratic debate. After an informal summit with EU leaders in Berlin on Sunday (25 March), Ms Merkel rejected criticism, predominantly from the Czech Republic, over the way she prepared the Berlin Declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the union - a method she wants to continue in the second half of the German EU presidency while seeking to lay the basis for a new EU treaty.

The Merkel strategy consists of holding limited consultations with so-called sherpas - member states officials holding behind-closed-doors talks with the German EU presidency.
In the case of the Berlin declaration, national capitals had received the draft of the document only two days before adoption on Sunday, leading Mr Klaus to complain that "democratic debate is lacking." Angry Czech officials in the run-up to the Berlin summit urged the German presidency to handle the forthcoming talks on the EU constitution differently - but Ms Merkel told journalists that she would continue her way of working.

"This is one of the things that cannot be done out in the open on the market square," she said about the constitution issue. "What I want to avoid is that every time there is a draft document, and when one of the 27 [member states] makes a small amendment, there has to be a broad debate on every single little change, that it becomes a matter of prestige." She said her way of dealing with the issue through diplomatic channels would also give the Czech republic an opportunity to defend its interests - "perhaps more successfully than when everything is in the newspapers the next day and the other countries say - the Czechs got three things and now we want three things too."

Meanwhile, the German chancellor confirmed that Berlin wants to break the EU's institutional deadlock, sparked by "no" votes against European constitution in France and the Netherlands in 2005. as quickly as possible. She said a key EU leaders summit in June should concentrate on how it can be ensured that a revised version of the EU constitution will be ratified in time for the 2009 European elections. "The real issue will be implementation. It is not good enough to have 27 signatories on a paper that cannot be implemented," the chancellor stated. "The June [summit] cannot completely solve this issue, but it can demonstrate that we have the will to achieve something before the European elections."

The German EU presidency favours a fast-track procedure which would see the Portuguese presidency in the second half of this year open and close a so-called Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) which would renegotiate the constitution. An early agreement would leave enough time for the ratification of the revised constitution before mid-2009. But during a working lunch in Berlin on Sunday, it emerged that not all EU leaders agreed to this speedy timetable, with Polish president Lech Kaczynski saying after the meeting that that the 2009 deadline for ratification is "not realistic."

Meanwhile, eurosceptic and pro-democracy groups are gearing up to fight any rapid resurrection of the EU constitution without citizens having a say in it. Jens-Peter Bonde, Danish eurosceptic member of the European Parliament, said he is setting up a cross-political group of MEPs who will call for referendums across the EU. The group would include both supporters and opponents of the current EU constitution, uniting in their belief that the decision on treaty reform should be made by citizens. "We will call for referendums as soon as the result of the IGC is there," Mr Bonde said.
During the Berlin summit, a group of eurosceptic campaigners ranging from Dutch socialists to British conservatives held an alternative EU anniversary conference in a school in Berlin's Kreuzberg area, issuing their own "Alternative Berlin Declaration."The alternative declaration calls upon EU leaders to "respect the explicit 'no' to the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands."
"It was an expression of the alienation felt between voters and the political class and it was a vote for a Europe of the citizens. Angela Merkel's request to revive the EU constitution at the highest level and behind closed doors will not solve the crisis but intensify it," the text says.
"We demand for an open, democratic process – without artificial time-pressure – in which the citizens will have the decisive say about the future of Europe." Among the alternative conference's participants, there was also one German professor who reminded Ms Merkel that the EU constitution has not been fully ratified in Germany -despite Berlin's strong public backing for it.

Law professor Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, himself a strong opponent of the constitution, in 2005 filed a lawsuit against the charter on behalf of German MP Peter Gauweiler before Germany's national constitutional court in Karlsruhe. The court said last October it would not rule on whether the EU constitution was compatible with the German constitution until after a final decision had been taken on the overall fate of the document This ruling has impeded German president Horst Koehler from signing the ratification bill which was passed by the German parliament, with the president's signature necessary for final ratification.

We already had one of those.....................

With the finesse of a six-legged elephant wearing gardening gloves, German chancellor Angela Merkel has made a call for a common EU army. This, on the eve of the 50th anniversary celebrations, comes in an interview in today's edition of the mass-circulation German tabloid Bild Zeitung, where the chancellor is cited as saying: "We must come closer to forming a common European army."

This was not, you understand, a call for the expedition of the European Rapid Reaction Force, with its own separate national cadres, but a full-blown, badged army, ring-of-stars banners and all.

Those with long memories and/or a good grasp of history, will recall that this has been tried before, and that the last impetus in that direction also came from Berlin. Merkel, perhaps, has lost touch with her roots.

However, for all the sinister overtones, this is probably less worrisome that it sounds. In an earlier piece, we remarked how Germany, post-war, tended to look for a European framework for her foreign policy and military ambitions, in order to reassure her neighbours (and especially France) of her benign intentions. On that basis, the time really to start worrying is when Germany abandons the European route and strikes out alone.


What we may be seeing here, though, is a half-way house. Traditionally, the calls for a European military come from France, with Germany falling in with the Gallic partner. Merkel may get away with it this time on the grounds that she hold the EU presidency but later repeats may not be treated with equanimity. One can see France, at the very least, with its nose seriously out of joint - and Poland not far behind.

For the moment though, while the German media has picked this up, and the India media has also mentioned it, citing the Chinese news agency, our own media is still fast asleep.

A very worrying development - ?!

It is difficult to believe that one could ever have warmed to the current (or any) EU commission president, but the Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield – their latest EU correspondent – has come up trumps, painting a sympathetic picture of José Manuel Barroso.

The occasion is an interview in which, under the heading, "Political correctness is killing our freedoms", Barroso tells us that "Europe's citizens" must be on their guard "against political correctness and moralising politicians". He is concerned that freedom can be the loser in European culture wars over climate change, cheap air travel, Islam and free speech.

"We should be aware," he says, "of people who, sometimes for good reasons, try to establish what I call private moral codes, for this or that, be it climate change, religious behaviour or any kind of social behaviour."

But the absolute corker is his comments on the UK's climate change agenda, which he condemns as a "turn-off". This, he warns, risks intruding into people's lives, threatens individual freedom and could turn voters off the fight against global warming.

He also hails cheap air travel as "a great thing for our civilisation" and expresses grave concerns over fashionable plans, floated by Mr Miliband, for personal carbon rationing and suspects that proposals to restrict CO2 emissions from an individual's activities will lead to intrusive surveillance into private lives.

"I do not see any need to establish these intrusive approaches that may reduce the freedom of our societies," he says. "We have to find the right balance and I believe the right balance is not found if we start giving these kind of personal good or bad behaviour certificates to people."

Barroso's views on tackling global warming, writes Waterfield, also clash with Cameron's plans to introduce green taxes and individual allowances on air travel. "Cheap air travel is great for our civilisation. When we think now that people have the freedom to circulate instead of being confined to a small territory, it is great progress," he says.

This is very worrying indeed, when an EU apparatchik actually seems to be talking more sense than our own politicians. I think I will have to go and lie down.

The French national library BNF has launched a prototype version of its
contribution to a European digital library aimed as one of the European alternatives to US digitalisations of books and documents.

http://euobserver.com/9/23807/?rk=1

The EU has said "the time is right" for new engagement in Central Asia after a high-level meeting in Kazakhstan saw joint agreement to hold more such talks in future, with the German EU presidency hoping the dialogue will lead to political reform but with human rights groups on alert over Europe's real agenda in the energy-rich region.

http://euobserver.com/9/23805/?rk=1

EU needs more legitimacy, say young Europeans

26.03.2007 - 09:27 CET | By Lucia Kubosova
EUOBSERVER / ROME - Meeting in Rome on 24 and 25 March and mirroring the Berlin summit of EU leaders, young Europeans called for more legitimacy in the bloc's institutions, urging the reforms to be brought in as part of a new Constitution agreed by an EU-wide referendum.

"We are split in half on the current EU constitution. But we agree the new treaty business should be finished because otherwise it keeps haunting Europe although there are more important issues," said Bettina Schwarzmayr, from the European Youth Forum, co-organising the first EU youth summit with the European Commission.

Just like the Berlin meeting, the Rome summit agreed a declaration to mark the EU's 50th birthday which young people on Sunday handed over to representatives of the union's three main institutions - the parliament, commission and German presidency.The drafting of the final text - unlike the secretly-prepared Berlin statement – was preceded by debates on local, regional and national levels, with around 200 summit participants discussing its details in six working groups during their two-day meeting in Rome.

"It was tough but it was worth it. Now we can truly say it is a declaration of young Europeans, as opposed to the text drawn by the German presidency in such an intransparent way," said the summit's rapporteur Ernest Urtasun from Spain."One of the key messages from our debates is that the European project needs to take a step back. We need to work on legitimacy of European institutions and mainly involve national parliaments because the people we elect cannot be silent on issues decided at EU level," he added.

The European Parliament's vice-president Alejo Vidal-Quadras promised the youngsters that MEPs would look into their recommendations.But he played down their criticism of the declaration produced by a closed circle around the German chancellor Angela Merkel, arguing it was always going to spark some disappointment given that there had been such great expectations of it.

Although divided in their views on the EU constitution adopted in Rome in 2004 and rejected the following year by French and Dutch citizens – and predominantly by young people - the youth summit agreed its core should be saved.The participants argued that the revised treaty should drop the third part of the current draft on EU policies and then be put to vote by citizens in EU-wide referendum. "We all need to combine ambitions with realism,"said EU youth and education commissioner Jan Figel.

The young activists' wishlist included an EU strategy for public transportation and a push for more railways, zero greenhouse emissions vehicles, and reduced flights within the continent.They also called for increased EU funds for NGOs, European history and EU issues to be included in formal national curricula, and the voting age to be lowered to 16, with a final exclamation: "Listen to what we have to say, ask us what we need and then act!"


Touax SA, is suing the German Government

A French company, Touax SA, is suing the German Government for $9 billion in a German court (in Bonn) for damages sustained as a result of the bombing of Yugoslavia by Nato in 1999. Suits have also been presented in the Belgian and French courts.

In April 1999, Nato bombed three bridges in the Danube at Novi Sad, and this blocked the Danube making it unnavigable for Touax's 500 or so ships. Two of the bridges have been rebuilt but one of them has been replaced by a pontoon bridge, which makes river traffic impossible. Touax says that only 24 of its ships can be used now.

The pontoon bridge is occasionally opened up, but if ships miss the opening time, they have to wait for days. Also, the Serbian authorities have started to demand fees for letting boats pass, whereas before the transit under the bridges was obviously free.

Touax says that Germany is responsible for the losses it has sustained because it joined in the Nato action. Because that attack was undertaken with no UN mandate, it was illegal, say Touax's lawyers.

The same court rejected an appeal in December by families of 10 civilians killed in May 1999 when the Morava bridge was bombed at Varvarin. The court did not rule on the legality of the war, but rejected the case simply because it said that claims for damages as a result of war were the responsibility of international law and not civil law. Individuals could not make claims, only states could.

The German Government hopes to plead the same case this time round, although that earlier case is still under appeal. The German Government claims that the war was legal, and adds that such claims have a statute of limitation of three years. [Handelsblatt, 16th February 2004]

Nations Are Urged To Open Nazi Files

Associated Press
Thursday, March 29, 2007; Page A02

A Jewish leader who survived the Holocaust as a boy by hiding in basements and attics urged countries to speed the opening of vast files on Nazi concentration camps and their victims.

Leo Rechter, president of the U.S.-based National Association of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, told Congress yesterday that Nazi war records stored in the German town of Bad Arolsen should be opened quickly for a dying generation of survivors. Rechter is an Austrian Jew whose family fled to Belgium after his father was killed at Auschwitz

The hearing was aimed at stepping up pressure on an 11-nation body that oversees the archive.