By Peggy Corlin - 24th May 2006
Germany should not expect success in its attempts to resurrect the EU constitution, warns Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly stressed her intention of trying to resurrect the moribund constitution during Germany’s presidency of the EU in the first six months of 2007.
But Juncker told French newspaper Le Figaro that she was likely to be disappointed, at least until after the French presidential elections.
“There will be only six weeks left of the German EU presidency after the French and Dutch elections,” Juncker told the paper.
And he stressed that those two countries had a very important role to play in defining the future of the EU.
“Whatever we do with the text of the constitution, it will be up to the countries that rejected it to lead the way.”
Austria, whose six-month tenure as EU president is drawing to a close, has also called for more immediate action on the constitution, without much success.
Indeed, EU leaders are expected to extend the ‘period of reflection’ on the constitution until mid 2007 - the end of the Germany’s presidency - at next month’s European summit.
Juncker does not expect much from the Franco-German alliance, either.
“Their common will is not enough any more,” he said.
But Juncker, who will receive the Charlemagne award for his work on European unification at a ceremony in Germany later today, suggests that keeping the European parliament in Strasbourg would be a good way of remembering Franco-German reconciliation
“Keeping the parliament in both Brussels and Strasbourg is a better symbol of what the EU represents than simply moving everything to Brussels,” he said.
“But I recognise that that opinion will not be shared by young liberals who are too young to understand the true origins of the EU.”
The controversy over the seat of the European parliament has reached new heights after it was revealed that MEPs have been overcharged by €150m over the past 25 years by the city of Strasbourg.
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