BERLIN, Jan 9 (Hina) - The European Constitution, on which European Union leaders were unable to agree last month, was the main topic of the first day of a two-day international conference which opened in Berlin on Friday and was
organised by the German Bertelsmann foundation.
BERLIN, Jan 9 (Hina) - The European Constitution, on which European
Union leaders were unable to agree last month, was the main topic of
the first day of a two-day international conference which opened in
Berlin on Friday and was organised by the German Bertelsmann
foundation.#L#
The Constitution needs to be adopted as soon as possible, Bertie
Ahern, prime minister of Ireland, which chairs the EU in the first
half of this year, said at the beginning of the conference, vowing to
do everything so that consensus could be reached on this issue.
Ahern announced he would consult the leaders of other EU nations on
the matter.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the main cause of the
failed negotiations on the European Constitution lay in the fact that
certain countries had put their own interests before the common ones.
National interests will best be realised on the European level,
Fischer said.
He underlined the need of harmonising the Constitution as soon as
possible or Europe would end up moving at different speeds.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that Croatia, although not yet an EU
candidate, was interested in seeing consensus reached on the
Constitution. After half a century of cold war divisions, Europe must
not allow new divisions or the creation of first and second category
countries, he said.
The 10 countries which join the EU this spring and those who will join
later, among them Croatia, will not be just a financial burden for the
Union but will bring new wealth and new cultures, Sanader said.
(Hina) ha sb