Top German diplomat sees deal on treaty by end 2007

Germany’s ambassador to the European Union has said that there could be a deal on renegotiating the EU constitution as early as the end of next year.

Speaking in Brussels on 6 December, Wilhelm Schönfelder said that in order to get a new text ratified by the time of the European Parliament elections in 2009 "you need to know what you need to ratify by the end of 2007". That would require a "very short" intergovernmental conference under the Portuguese presidency of the EU in the second half of 2007, he said. This would leave a year for the new text to be ratified in time. "We should have a very short [intergovernmental] conference. Otherwise we can’t stick to the timeframe," he said.

Schönfelder said that the EU was in a "crisis" following the rejection of the constitution by French and Dutch voters last year. He warned that the attempt to revive the text had to work: "Everyone knows if we don’t succeed this time this thing will be dead."

But he pointed out that, following Finland’s ratification of the constitution on Tuesday (5 December), 18 member states will have signed up to the treaty by January next year. While two others had said ‘No’, "three others were problematic", he said, without naming which countries he meant. Diplomats said he was referring to the UK, Poland and the Czech Republic.

There should definitely not be another convention, Schönfelder said, referring to the body which drew up the first draft constitution text.

The ambassador said that the German government had not taken a decision on the way to proceed but his recommendation was to "keep it out of the Brussels machinery". If getting an agreement were left to the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the Commission, "you will never come to a solution", he said.

Instead, the German presidency’s approach would be for negotiations to be handled only by national capitals, he said. "This can only be solved at the highest political level," he said. Berlin has decided on two sherpas, one from the chancellor’s office and one from the foreign ministry, to talk to their counterparts in national capitals, he said.

If Schönfelder’s plan is followed by the German presidency, it is bound to provoke a very strong reaction from MEPs. German MEP and future president of Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party said this week that there should be "strong participation" from the European Parliament in a renegotiation of the constitution although he said it should be in the form of a conference rather than a convention.

Schönfelder said that Berlin would prepare a report by the end of its term which would include "recommendations on substance" as well as on procedures and a calendar for the next steps.

But he cautioned against excessive optimism about what the German presidency could achieve during its six-month term. "We will not be able to solve the problem [of the constitution] as such. We will only be able to make proposals for a roadmap filled with as much substance as possible."

• At a debate between MEPs and representatives of national parliaments in Brussels on 4-5 December a majority of speakers called for as much of the constitution’s substance as possible to be retained in any renegotiated text.

Germany’s ambassador to the European Union has said that there could be a deal on renegotiating the EU constitution as early as the end of next year.