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BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed European Union leaders at a 50th anniversary summit today to reform the bloc's creaking institutions by 2009, but met resistance from sceptical Polish and Czech presidents.
At a solemn ceremony in Berlin, long a symbol of Europe's Cold War division, Merkel told fellow leaders the EU needed to be put on a firmer basis to cope with enlargement.
"Failure would be a historic error," she said.
Behind closed doors, she urged them to begin negotiating a new treaty in June salvaging the substance of a stalled EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, with the aim of concluding in December.
"We know that we must always renew the political shape of Europe in keeping with the times," Merkel declared to applause.
"The internal structures must be adapted to an enlarged Union with 27 member states." She called for a road map with political guidelines for a new treaty to be agreed in June.
But Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Czech President Vaclav Klaus, central Europe's most Eurosceptical leaders, made clear they were in no such hurry.
Kaczynski wants to reopen the reformed voting system at the heart of the constitution and he said ratifying a new treaty in 2009 was "unachievable". Klaus called it "just a dream".
Merkel said she saw little prospect of reopening discussions on the voting system, which represented a hard-fought compromise between big and small states.
She told a news conference she was convinced Sunday's sun-bathed celebration of the EU's achievements, which drew big crowds to central Berlin, had created the right mood to find a solution in June to Europe's constitutional uncertainty.
Street parties
The constitution would give the EU a long-term president and foreign minister, a simpler, more democratic decision-making system and more say for the European and national parliaments.
But in a reflection of deep national divisions about how to move forward, the broad, aspirational "Berlin Declaration" issued on Sunday did not mention the constitution, religion or future enlargement, which was one factor behind the "No" votes.
And only Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the speaker of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, signed the document -- not all 27 EU leaders.
Public support for membership has declined in many countries because of fears the EU is failing to protect workers from the impact of globalisation, eroding national identities and meddling excessively in national affairs.
In Berlin, leaders sought to counter that mood by stressing the EU's achievements of spreading peace, prosperity, democracy and the rule of law on a continent that had endured war, dictatorship and atrocities for the previous half century.
Merkel, 52, grew up in then-communist East Germany and pointed out the German Historical Museum where the ceremony took place was not far from the former Berlin Wall, which had divided her own family and limited her horizons.
"Europe is much more than dairy cows and the Chemicals Directive," she said, referring to its "Judeo-Christian heritage", which she was unable to insert in the declaration, prompting Pope Benedict to accuse the EU of "apostasy".
Barroso recalled that when six founder nations signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, creating the European Economic Community, 15 of the now 27 members were under dictatorship or deprived of independence.
"Size matters in today's world. Together we can achieve results we could never dream of alone, tackling the challenges of the globalised world: climate change, energy security, terrorism and organised crime, mass migration, a more competitive economic environment and global poverty," he said.
The leaders mingled with tens of thousands of people around the Brandenburg Gate, once the dividing line between East and West Berlin, for a "people's party".
The leaders paid tribute to veteran French President Jacques Chirac, making his final appearance on the European stage before stepping down in May, by giving him an 18th century beer mug.
- REUTERS
