BERLIN, Dec 11 - Germany would prefer to delay a new European Union constitution rather than adopt a weak text at a summit of EU leaders starting Friday, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Thursday. "No result this year is in our opinion clearly better than a bad result that would delay or prevent the work of Europe for years," Fischer told the German parliament to applause. "Whether we come to a positive result in the coming days -- and this is no diplomatic formulation -- is really open." Fischer said Germany wanted to protect the "historical compromise" struck by a 105-member Convention of lawmakers and national representatives that proposed EU decision-making take greater account of population sizes as the bloc expands east. "If the summit in Brussels shows that the readiness to make the necessary integration progress is not yet there in an EU of 25 then it would be better to continue to negotiate," he said.
Spain and Poland are resisting a drive led by Germany and France to see the convention's proposals turned into an EU constitution that would overturn a complex weighted voting system agreed in the EU's 2000 Nice Treaty. The Nice Treaty gives Spain and Poland nearly as many votes as Germany despite their significantly smaller populations. "We must now stop the member states reopening the ambitious result of the Convention. Falling back onto the Nice Treaty would inevitably mean that the whole European integration process would suffer lasting political damage," Fischer said. "That would almost necessarily mean the development of a Europe of different speeds and cores," he said. France and Germany have suggested they could forge on with closer integration without more reticent members of the bloc if no progress is made in Brussels, raising the spectre of a "two-speed Europe" particularly feared in Britain. "This is not about tactics or threats but this would be the consequence that follows from an enlarged union without the necessary institutional structure, decision-making mechanisms and democratic transparence," Fischer said.
The German minister said the constitution should provide a foundation for a strong Europe. "Only together can we shape the 21st century in a positive way," he said. "The world will not wait for the Europeans. Either we solve our internal problems ... or the world will develop without the positive influence of the European Union." Fischer also said Germany backed a proposal by the Italian presidency for the constitution to give both the European parliament and EU governments joint say over EU spending, rather than giving the parliament full control over the budget.//