German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that Europe needs a constitution to remain effective and that her government will work hard for it to be revived.
Angela Merkel in the Bundestag today. Photo: Reuters
Addressing the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Ms Merkel warned against moving too quickly on the constitution, however, saying efforts to move Europe forward could fail if EU states did not take the time to explain to their citizens that the treaty was in their interests.
"We absolutely need the constitution to ensure the European Union is effective and capable of action," Ms Merkel said.
Since the French and Dutch rejections of an ambitious new EU-wide constitution, the 25-nation bloc has stumbled through one of its most difficult years in its half-century history.
Fears over enlargement, notably EU plans to open membership talks with Turkey, were seen as the major reason for the vetoes, which consigned the treaty to the deep freeze.
Germany assumes the EU's rotating presidency in January next year, and Ms Merkel made clear rehabilitating the constitution would be its chief focus.
"If it's not tackled before, you can be sure that the German presidency will focus on this. Because it is so difficult and the stances are so different. However, I am against moving too quickly and putting us back in a situation where we can't move forward," Ms Merkel added.
"We need to think about how we make the constitution a success. I want the constitution, the German government wants the constitution and I think a majority of this parliament wants it too."
She said Europe needed to convince its citizens that it was working in their interests - creating jobs and ensuring their security against growing threats like terrorism.
In what appeared to be a reference to Turkey, Ms Merkel said talks on integrating new members into the EU could not be a "one way street", and that Europe needed to develop alternatives to full membership that bound countries closer to the bloc.
In the past, Ms Merkel has advocated "privileged partnership" status for Ankara and warned that full membership of the largely Muslim country could prove too much of a burden for the bloc.