GERMANY and France yesterday called for a shift in the European Union towards their vision of "hard core" integration, risking a fresh showdown with Britain over demands for their policies to be enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty.
A joint Franco German paper, `from both countries' Foreign Ministers, Mr Herve de Charette and Mr Klaus Kinkel, to be submitted to the EU constitutional conference, called for the insertion into the Maastricht Treaty of "one or several clauses on strengthened co-operation between willing and able member states".
The German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, sold the idea of hard core integration to President Jacques Chirac last December. Yesterday's proposal puts flesh on the bones of the KohlChirac deal. The aim is to amend the Maastricht Treaty to enable small, variable groups of EU members to push ahead in common policy making on foreign and defence matters, law and order, and immigration and visa issues.
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Malcolm Rifkind, said last week that Britain was not opposed to greater flexibility in the EU, with Germany and France moving faster towards integration. But Britain may well seek to block moves aimed at anchoring these powers in EU treaties.
German officials said a draft new treaty would be ready within eight weeks for the EU summit in Dublin and finalised six months later at the Amsterdam summit.
Germany and France are also close to agreeing on a new EU post and person responsible for co-ordinating common foreign policy making the officials added. Expansion of the EU to eastern Europe is supposed to get seriously under way within six months of the end of the ongoing inter governmental conference. The scheduled end is next June. Bonn is adamant that the aim of hard core integration has to be realised before further expansion.