EU enlargement 'irreversible'
2001-06-12 20:11
Freiburg, Germany - Germany and France
planned to declare strong support for EU enlargement on Tuesday
after Ireland's rejection of the Nice Treaty in a referendum
threw a new obstacle in the path of eastward expansion.
Leaders of the two countries meeting in the southwest
German town of Freiburg were expected to issue a declaration
stressing that there must be no delay to the bloc taking in new
members.
"We want to make clear that the enlargement process is
irreversible," a German government source said after talks
between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President
Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
The rejection of the Nice Treaty by 54 percent of Irish
voters has cast a cloud over an EU summit in Gothenburg
starting on Friday that is expected to announce that
enlargement negotiations should be completed by the end of
2002.
The source said Germany and France expected that Ireland
would be able to repeat its referendum on the Nice Treaty next
year and said last week's shock vote should not hold up the
EU's plans to take in up to a dozen new members in coming
years.
"A time delay will not be expected and also no new
negotiations," the German source said.
A French source agreed: "We want to convey a message that
we have confidence in the Union to overcome these
difficulties."
Franco-German motor still running
After discord between the EU's two heavyweights upset the
last EU summit in Nice in December, the leaders were likely to
seek to play down mounting differences between Paris and Berlin
about where Europe should go next.
Jospin recently rejected calls by Schroeder for a more
federal EU, with more power for the European Commission at the
expense of the Council of Ministers, stressing that France
wanted to see nation states remain in the driving seat of
Europe.
Although analysts see little chance of the two sides making
much progress on such controversial issues before elections in
France early next year and in Germany in the second half of
2002, Berlin played up areas of agreement.
"Contrary to what certain commentators are saying, the
German-French motor is intact and functions in the direction of
Europe taking further steps forward," the German source said.
Sources said Berlin and Paris were considering issuing a
joint Franco-German letter on how to manage the debate around
Europe's future ahead of the Laaken summit in December which
will mark the end of a six-month presidency by Belgium.
A German source said the letter was likely to focus on
areas where Berlin and Paris are closest, such as pooling more
power in the EU in areas like economic and finance policy,
internal security and justice and foreign and security affairs.
While the two sides were also likely to stress their joint
commitment to the 1997 Kyoto accord on global warming and
efforts to promote non-proliferation of ballistic weapons,
France was unable to get Germany to move on negotiations over
the A400M military transport aircraft they both want to buy.
In a declaration issued in Freiburg, the two nations said
they would state their intention to buy the A400M at the Le
Bourget airshow near Paris next week, but the German official
said no deal was sealed over the 73 planes it wants.
EADS, the majority shareholder of Airbus Industrie that
will build the A400M, said this month Germany was the only
country still to agree to the deal and said it had offered
special terms to Berlin to pay for development costs on
delivery.
France has warned that any wavering from the A400M project
could endanger Europe's plans to establish a rapid reaction
force of 60 000 troops by 2003, but Germany has said it will
not be pressured in such sensitive negotiations.
Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Turkey, Italy, Belgium,
Portugal and Luxembourg are expected to order a total of around
220 A400M planes to come into service from 2007.