Only heads of EU institutions to sign the Berlin Declaration

Only the heads of the three main EU institutions will sign the Berlin declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, EU diplomats have confirmed.

Instead of all 27 heads of state or government signing the document, which is intended for countries to recommit themselves to working together within the European Union, the text will be signed only by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as president of the European Council on behalf of the member states, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Although the idea of having only the three EU leaders signing the text began circulating in February, it was formally suggested by the German presidency only on Monday (19 March) when German diplomats proposed four paragraphs of the declaration.

Czech centre-right MEP Jan Zahradil, Prague’s lead negotiator on the declaration, said that Berlin’s suggestion meant that the German presidency took "full responsibility for the content of the declaration" while the national representatives were at liberty to interpret various parts of the document. Zahradil said that this meant that if there was a reference to June 2009 in the declaration, Prague would not see it as a date for "anticipating adoption of the constitution or a similar treaty". The Czech government wants to avoid its first EU presidency in the first half of 2009 being overshadowed by the question of whether new institutional reforms have been agreed.

He added that the German presidency had decided not to include a specific reference to the constitution in the declaration in response to objections from Prague. London and Warsaw also wanted to avoid use of the word "constitution".

German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, who is close to Merkel, said that it had been decided not to refer to the constitution because "it would only have been a few days before disagreements broke out" among governments over what they had signed up to.

EU diplomats said that the German presidency decided on the three signature format "some time ago" and it was confirmed at the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on 8-9 March. They said that otherwise getting 30 politicians physically to sign the text would take around 90 minutes as the signing of the constitution had done and would not be followed on television by the general public at whom it is aimed.

But the staging will inevitably be interpreted as a sign of division among EU leaders over the declaration’s wording. Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prague’s Deputy Prime Minister for EU affairs Alexander Vondra were meeting German diplomats in Berlin yesterday (21 March) to discuss the wording of the declaration.

German diplomats will only send a complete draft of the declaration to EU governments this afternoon (22 March). So far they have sent a one-page outline of the structure and on Monday they sent four additional paragraphs.

The declaration, which is meant to act as a springboard for a relaunch of negotiations on a new EU treaty after the June summit, will consist of at least four parts: the first dealing with the Union’s achievements including peace, security, the internal market and stability; features of European co-operation including equal rights and responsibilities of member states, subsidiarity, democracy and the rule of law; values including human dignity, solidarity, diversity and tolerance; and future internal and external challenges including energy and climate change, justice and home affairs and foreign policy. A fifth section on "shared commitments" is expected to state that EU governments are committed to renewing the foundations of the European Union. This part may refer to June 2009 but as the date of the European Parliament elections rather than as a deadline for agreeing new treaty reforms.

Only the heads of the three main EU institutions will sign the Berlin declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, EU diplomats have confirmed.

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