EU Battle Over Constitution / USA Trade (reject, evolve, America, Christian)

[michel]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...U&refer=europe

Germany's Merkel Faces EU Battle Over Constitution (Update1)

By James G. Neuger and Jonathan Stearns
March 24 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel battled against members of her own center-right political family to forge a common stance on how to revive the European Union's moribund constitution.

Merkel, in charge of EU talks on a new decision-making system, faced competing calls from the Netherlands for a scaled- back constitution and from Luxembourg for a new treaty that is as ambitious as the one that collapsed two years ago.
Voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the constitution in 2005, throwing the EU into institutional limbo and slowing the half-century drive for a more integrated Europe.

``Those having said no shouldn't have the impression that they were right and all those having said yes were wrong,'' Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters at a meeting of center-right EU leaders in Berlin today. ``This is a particular remark for the Dutch.''
Merkel, holder of the EU's six-month presidency, plans to relaunch the quest for a new EU treaty with a declaration tomorrow on the 50th anniversary of the bloc's founding Treaty of Rome.

The impasse leaves the EU with a lawmaking system that has evolved piecemeal since six countries signed the Rome treaty on March 25, 1957. The bloc now embraces 27 countries from the Atlantic to the Russian border.
Individual Countries
``We take the voices from the individual countries seriously,'' Merkel said at the meeting, which included seven leaders from the center-right grouping known as the European People's Party. ``We take the citizens seriously.''
Merkel has drafted a ``Berlin declaration'' that commits the EU to setting a ``renewed common foundation'' by 2009. The draft text makes no mention of a ``constitution,'' a term deemed too sensitive.

``What we need now is a change in the treaty,'' Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said. ``It's best to avoid the word constitution.''
Balkenende rejected the idea that the Dutch are holding up the process.
``We're not a problem country,'' Balkenende said. ``The Netherlands are always a constructive country and we're very keen to search for a solution.''
All EU leaders signed off in 2004 on the new rulebook, which would streamline EU decision-making and create the posts of president and foreign minister. It has been ratified by 18 of the 27, including Germany, Luxembourg and Austria.
EU Treaty

Cracks opened after the French and Dutch vetoes, the first time founding members said no to an EU treaty.
``A `yes' can't be of less value than a `no','' Austrian Vice Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, also part of the European People's Party, said in an interview. ``We want a common solution. The constitutional treaty is a good basis.''
New leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have expressed doubts about the constitution, and candidates in France's presidential election are sparring over whether to put a renegotiated treaty to another referendum.

``We have differences -- we have to negotiate,'' said Elmar Brok, a German Christian Democrat and member of the center-right group in the European Parliament.
Divisions also prevail on the other side of the political spectrum.
``No one came with the illusion that all questions about the future of the constitution will be solved this weekend,'' Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said at a separate meeting of center-left leaders in Berlin today.
And:-
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Pre.../1135226053006

The European Union and the United States can discuss even difficult matters and seek solutions to their problems regardless of potential differences of opinion, said Finland's President Tarja Halonen, speaking at the anniversary celebrations of the American Chamber of Commerce in Finland on Thursday.
"Democracy, respect for human rights, the rule of law, and the market economy form the basis of our respective societies on both sides of the ocean", noted Halonen.

She commented further that "despite shared values and goals, it is not always easy to work together."
"There have always been sensitive points in transatlantic cooperation, most recently differences of opinion between the EU and the United States regarding the response to international security threats", the President continued.
She feels that many problems between the EU and the United States have to do with new security rules related to counter-terrorism.

President Halonen was also pleased to mention that an agreement on the disclosure of passenger data was signed during Finland's term as the EU Presidency, thus making transatlantic air travel easier.

Halonen stressed particularly that it is important that cooperation on issues related to climate change is progressing.

As for the relations between Finland and the United States, President Halonen mentioned that the USA remains Finland's most important trade and investment partner outside Europe, and that trade between the two countries has recently begun to grow again.
Actually, Finland's Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister of Finance recently met their US counterparts in Washington DC, and "both parties seem genuinely interested in the potential of economic cooperation", Halonen concluded.