Pöttering muscles in on Berlin

Member states should not have a monopoly over the drafting of the Berlin Declaration, which it is hoped will help re-launch the EU next year, according to the chairman of the biggest political group in the European Parliament.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the centre-right EPP-ED group, said that the EU's three main institutions - Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers - should together draft the declaration marking the 50th anniversary of the European Union. After the rejections of the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands in 2005, some EU leaders are hoping that the Berlin Declaration will mark a symbolic new beginning for the European Union.

Pöttering believes the declaration, to be launched on 25 March 2007, should be written by a working group "at political level" bringing together a vice-president of the European Parliament and of the Commission, and the minister for Europe of the country in charge of the EU's rotating presidency.

"The Messina Declaration [paving the way for the launch of the European Economic Community in 1957] was drafted by foreign ministers or by representatives of the foreign ministers. But to show the political evolution of the Union, the Berlin Declaration should be drafted by all institutions," said Pöttering.

For Pöttering, who is likely to be the next president of the Parliament from January 2007, "the Berlin Declaration is an instrument to create a more and more politically and psychologically positive atmosphere to realise the substance of the EU constitution".

The Berlin Declaration should be about Europe's ambitions for the future and its values, he said. "There should be something about our values," Pöttering said, adding that the declaration should say that "the EU can only enlarge to those countries that commit themselves to our values".

"We should put the word solidarity at the centre of the Berlin Declaration," he said.

But Pöttering, a German Christian Democrat, warned against exaggerated expectations that the German government, which will be in charge of the EU presidency at the time of the Berlin Declaration, will be able to resolve the EU's deep problems.

"I am not happy - and I am not saying that because I am a German - that everybody is concentrating on the German presidency," he said.

"Of course, Angela Merkel is a person of hope for Europe. No doubt, she understands like few others the psychology of Europe and she is in the good tradition of Helmut Kohl. But she is not alone and she needs support. It is unfair only to talk about the German presidency."

The grand coalition government in Berlin has put the rescue of the EU constitution as an important point on its programme. But because of the timing of the French elections, which will take place in May 2007, the German government will not be able to come up with any concrete proposals on the constitution before the last days of its EU presidency. Pöttering said: "One should not expect everything from the Germans, they can't do it alone."

Member states should not have a monopoly over the drafting of the Berlin Declaration, which it is hoped will help re-launch the EU next year, according to the chairman of the biggest political group in the European Parliament.