50 Years EU

The EU constitution has been in limbo since its rejection by French and Dutch voters in 2005. Now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she hopes to present a road map for its revival in time for elections to the EU parliament in 2009.

The German government has prepared a so-called Berlin Declaration, which has been sent to the other 26 EU member states for approval and hopes to have signed at a giant birthday party for the bloc in the German capital Sunday.

The weekend celebrations will mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the EU.

Support expected

Government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said Wednesday that Berlin was confident the draft Berlin Declaration would win the support of the entire union.

German newspaper Handelsblatt said it had obtained a copy of the text, in which Germany states the goal of ending the constitutional crisis in two years' time. But the draft does not mention the word "constitution," so as to not provoke supporters of a more watered-down treaty.

The Handelsblatt report noted that several states objected to including the date 2009, deeming it too early.

The newspaper added that the inclusion in the declaration of a "European social model" that can only be preserved by a united bloc was also a source of controversy.

Steinmeier: 'The EU needs a new foundation'

Britain in particular has raised objections to the inclusion of such a phrase in a European constitution.

Voters in France and the Netherlands rejected a draft constitution in referendums in 2005, sending the project into a tailspin and plunging the union into a serious crisis.

According to a report by Reuters news service, a section of the two or three page Berlin Declaration reads: "Fifty years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, we are united in the common goal of renewing, in time for the 2009 European Parliamentary elections, the common foundation on which the European Union is built."

Describing the significance of this passage, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Reuters: "The Union needs renewed foundations, and that needs to come in the form of the substance of a constitution."

Skeptical Czechs?

The full text of the declaration will be issued on Sunday, where it is to be signed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso and the head of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering.

The mention of 2009 is not expected to please the Czechs, who are one of the countries that want Merkel to scrap her plans to try again with the constitution.

The Czech negotiator for the declaration, member of European Parliament Jan Zahradil, said Prague would not treat this language as a commitment to any kind of new charter or treaty.

A few tough sells

"We won't wreck the whole thing, but we will interpret it as we see fit, therefore not as a commitment to a new treaty or a version of it by 2009," Zahradil told Reuters.

The Czechs, Poles, British, Dutch and French are expected to be the most difficult countries for Merkel to convince as she presses ahead with plans to lay out a specific "road map" for the EU charter, which aims to make the bloc's institutions more

efficient and streamline decision-making.