European integration irreversible, says Kohl

THE German chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, promised yesterday that European integration would be irreversible but denied that it would dissolve national cultures in a centralised superstate.

Speaking in the Philippine capital, Manila, after receiving an honorary doctorate of humanities, Dr Kohl, who today becomes Germany's longest serving post war chancellor, also called for international co operation to fight drugs and organised crime.

"We intend to make European integration irreversible so that young people in Europe never have to go to war again. To be sure, there will always be differences of opinion but we must want to resolve them together peacefully," he said.

Dismissing as "ridiculous" claims that integration would lead to a European superstate, he described his vision of the future as "unity in diversity".

More and more countries are realising that confrontation, as well as isolation, no longer have a place in the age of globalisation. Every country is well advised "within the context of international politics to seek co operation with others and to refrain from shows of strength."

Dr Kohl's achievement in surpassing Konrad Adenauer's record of 14 years and one month as chancellor was overshadowed yesterday by a bitter Bundestag debate over next year's budget. The opposition Social Democrats, who had demanded that Dr Kohl return from Asia for the debate, accused the Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, of lying and deceiving the public over the budget.

Mr Waigel countered by demanding that the opposition come up with their own ideas for cutting Germany's budget deficit to enable the country to qualify for membership of the single European currency. He defended Dr Kohl's decision to continue his tour of Asia and praised his record in office.

"We are proud of this chancellor," he said.

Dr Kohl has received numerous such tributes in recent weeks and the German media is full of profiles and analyses of his record breaking tenure. Even the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, which has regularly predicted his political demise since he took office, now dubs him "the eternal".

Writing in a Berlin newspaper yesterday, the French political scientist Dr Alfred Grosser suggested that German commentators underestimated Dr Kohl's status abroad.

"Everyone in Paris, in Washington and in Moscow is thoroughly convinced that Helmut Kohl is one of the world's few great statesmen and that the Germans should consider themselves fortunate to have such a chancellor. His successor will have a difficult task on the world stage," he said.

The liberal weekly Die Zeit sounded a discordant note, arguing that Dr Kohl had failed to solve any of the problems that plagued Germany when he took office 14 years ago. It claimed that his commitment to uniting Europe was not enough to justify his remaining in office any longer.

"His strengths have long since become his weaknesses. The means he has used to hold onto power are unsuitable for using that power sensibly. After 14 long years, he is responsible for the conditions he believes need changing," the paper wrote.

For his part, the chancellor affects to ignore the hullabaloo surrounding today's landmark, as he told an interviewer recently.

"I don't get up in the morning and count like a recruit how many days I have left before I overtake Adenauer. That is pretty absurd. I love life much too much for that," he said.