Parliament endorses EU compact

Government and opposition overwhelmingly support new constitution

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13. Mai 2005 F.A.Z. Weekly. The question leading up to Thursday's parliamentary vote was not whether the proposed European Union constitution would be approved, but rather how big the majority would be.
And when the votes were counted, the majority was very big: 95.8 percent of the members in the German parliament in Berlin approved the document. It had needed a two-thirds majority.
Before the vote was taken, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder tried to win over the small group of skeptics within the ranks of the opposition Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union. The European Union's constitution “is, and it could be no different, the product of human hands,“ Schröder said. “Of course, it does not fulfill all hopes, and it does not eliminate all concerns. But the text of the constitution is a very good and fair compromise.“
The leader of the Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel, joined Schröder's endorsement. And she pointed to the roles that two CDU chancellors - Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl - had played in shaping today's Europe. “To strengthen Europe as a community built on peace and shared values - there is simply no alternative.“
But Gerd Müller of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of the CDU, rejected the appeals. Müller described Schröder's speech as being empty and said the chancellor had failed to explain why the constitution had been “so poorly negotiated.“
The constitution still must be approved by the Bundesrat, which represents the 16 German states on national issues. It is expected to win easy approval there during the May 27 vote.
The same statement cannot be made about France, which will vote on the constitution two days later in a national referendum. French President Jacques Chirac is facing major opposition to the constitution, recent opinion polls have shown. Such a defeat could sink the compact because all 25 members of the European Union must approve it. That, in turn, would set off a crisis on the future of the union. Without the reforms provided by the document, some observers fear the organization could be paralyzed. Leaders would also encounter difficulties with their budget planning for 2007 through 2013, and negotiations over the possible membership of Turkey would be held up.
The constitution was worked out in years of negotiations. It would overhaul the union's entire structure, creating a European president, a European foreign minister and a more powerful European Parliament.
Up until now, the constitution has been approved by six countries: Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Greece and Slovakia. Austria's parliament approved the constitution on Wednesday. The country's Bundesrat will consider it on May 25.

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