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EU Army

DW staff (ktz)March 23, 2007

The European Union should move towards forming a common army, Germany’s Angela Merkel said in an interview focusing on the chancellor’s vision for the future of the bloc.

https://p.dw.com/p/A8Kk
Angela Merkel lobbies for the revival of the EU constitutionImage: AP

Just ahead of weekend celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the foundations of the European Union, Chancellor Merkel said she envisioned a single European army for the future of the 27-member bloc in the next decades.

"We need to get closer to a common army for Europe," she told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper in an interview published Friday.

The call for a European armed forces is not new. Last year, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country wanted a new 100,000-strong European army created to work with NATO in trouble spots in the world or to defend Europe.

Speaking on the future goals of the EU, Merkel, whose country currently holds the six-month rotating presidency, said the bloc needs "an EU constitutional treaty which is suited to the decision-making mechanism of a larger EU."

Berlin Declaration

Merkel has made reviving the constitution one of the key points in Germany’s presidency. The ratification process, which was derailed after France and the Netherlands rejected it in national referendums in 2005, has been further slowed by grappling over issues relating to the bloc’s existing structure.

Merkel hopes a weekend summit in Berlin will give new impetus to the process. She plans to unveil the Berlin Declaration, which sets out the values and achievements of the 27-nation bloc and outlines its goals for the future.

Germany has vowed to present a road map for relaunching the constitution at a June EU summit in Brussels with a clear view to getting a new document ratified by mid-2009.

Not a single state

In the Bild interview, Merkel rejected the notion that Europe would merge into a single state. "There will not be a European federal state, we will maintain the diversity of the nation states," she said.

"The European Commission will be more effective and have clearly defined responsibilities," she added.

Merkel said the essence of Europe could be described in a single word: "tolerance."