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The World From Berlin

Has Europe Damaged Its Soul?

The European Union hammered out a compromise deal on a new treaty early Saturday morning in Brussels, after Poland, Britain and the Netherlands won a number of concessions. As the dust settles, many German commentators wonder if the compromise deal has left Europe even less harmonious than before.

After marathon talks in Brussels, which lasted well into the early hours of Saturday morning, European Union leaders finally managed to agree on a new treaty that will streamline how the EU does business.

After two years of stagnation and navel-gazing, following the 2005 defeat of the European constitution in referenda in France and Netherlands, the European project is back on track. German chancellor and current EU president Angela Merkel brokered a deal replete with caveats, footnotes and opt-outs, which allowed most leaders to go home claiming they had got what they came for.

An Intergovernmental Conference will now be charged with transforming the agreement into a legally binding treaty, which will be signed by EU leaders at the end of the year. After being ratified by the member states it should come into force by 2009.

But it wasn’t easy. Despite the smiles all round on Saturday morning, the summit tested the limits of Europe's ability to agree on how to move forward. A showdown between Merkel and Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, brought the summit to the brink of failure. At one stage the German leader threatened to move on without Poland, after which French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened, persuading the reluctant Pole to agree to a deal, after Warsaw won concessions on the new voting system.

Poland had objected to the "double majority" system, arguing that it gave bigger countries, in particular Germany, more power than smaller countries. The system allows decisions to be made by combination of 55 percent of EU states, which have to represent at least 65 percent of the total population. The Poles were won around once the other countries agreed to postpone the system's implementation until 2017.

But it wasn’t over yet. The supporters of reform then rebelled at the concessions being given to Britain, which had come to Brussels with a series of "red lines" that could not be crossed. In the end London won a complicated opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, guaranteeing that it would not be legally binding in the UK. Britain also prevented the new EU foreign policy chief from being called "foreign minister," instead the position will be "High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy."

The German press on Monday gives muted approval to Chancellor Merkel's achievement of hammering out a deal, but some commentators are concerned that the treaty does not go far enough, and others point out that it still leaves most citizens in the dark about how the EU actually works.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"A union that needs to mobilize its last reserves, including the threat of a split, just to come to a half-way acceptable reform compromise, has a deep-seated problem. The EU summit this weekend revealed that the member states lack a common idea of Europe. And some ... think less about what they can create with the others in the EU, but rather how they can prevent a stronger Europe."

"Under these circumstances, it was a respectable achievement on the part of the German EU presidency. For Europe it was a stroke of luck that Angela Merkel has a deep European conviction along with strategic skills and a remarkable courage to take risks. The EU's institutional framework will be modernized, decisions will be made more efficiently."

"It steers the EU into calmer waters and provides it with the space to deal with the urgent political problems of globalization and international security. But Europe can only with other big powers if the blockers can be kept in line."

"Europe's woe is that the majority that want more unity are being led by the nose by the minority. After all, 18 countries had ratified the constitutional treaty. But the supporters of the treaty didn’t really fight for it at the summit. The blockers were strengthened by the cowardice of the others."

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"From the very beginning it was foolish to overburden Europeans with a constitution, which no one wanted and which wasn’t one anyway. Now an Intergovernmental Conference will formulate a treaty that will strengthen the EU's ability to work and will democratize it. And the EU draws back from the inclination to create a 'superstate.'"

"This takes into account the wishes not only of the French, the Dutch and the British, but also many Germans. Europe is taking on the form that the majority of its citizens want. They remain favourably inclined towards the respective nations and reject the European federal state. There will be no EU constitution for at least a generation. Many regret this, but its absence secures the existence of the EU."

"Angela Merkel solved the almost unsolvable. She persuaded the Poles to give up their maximum demands. But the conflict is not over. The interests of the old and new EU member states, are too different. Their concepts of the EU structure, their notions of the value of freedom in the EU, and their view of their own importance will see to it that there will still be some turbulence to come."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Angela Merkel can be satisfied with herself and with her work. The outgoing EU president has fulfilled her task. The ship of the EU, that was weighed down with the constitution, had run aground. It is still laboring, but it is afloat once again. But to achieve this, some things had to be thrown overboard, to the regret of some, but not all. In Brussels the EU member states revealed, shamelessly, how much at odds with each other they are on fundamental issues and how relentlessly they pursue their own interests."

"Naturally Germany has profited enormously from the peaceful unification of Europe. But how is one to justify that, six decades after the end of World War II, Germany can remain the paymaster of Europe ... while at the same time being refused the voting rights that correspond to its size?"

"In the East … there are still powerful resentments against Germany, that have long lost their force in the West. This is particularly surprising in Poland's case. Obviously the pro-Polish policies of German governments since (Willy) Brandt couldn’t prevent the Kaczynskis and their supporters from using labels from the Nazi era."

"The Brussels summit has once and for all refuted the claim that it is possible to expand and deepen the EU to the same degree. There will only be small steps in the future. And there is the possibility that even that could be hindered: by admitting Turkey."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"The constitution is dead, long live its substance! -- this is now the victory cheer from the supporters of reform. In fact the union has reached two of the three targets it set itself for its process of renewal. It was supposed to be more democratic, more efficient and more transparent, according to the 2001 brief. Despite the crises and corrections, a surprising amount of this has been implemented."

"The inability of the leaders to complete the third task -- increasing transparency -- is the most serious. More effective and democratic structures are of little use if the people can't understand them or recognize them. If the EU wants to develop further, it needs a minimum of sympathy from the people. But the summit did not promote this, because the compromise is complicated and inconsistent."

"The constitution should live on, but please only in secrecy -- this sort of false labelling will come back to haunt the EU in the long run. And the fact that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is no longer pan-European doesn't just affect the British. It weakens a foundation of the union that has been preserved for 50 years -- its common values. What use is it to Europe if it wins more influence in the world but damages its soul?"

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"It is now clear that at the end of the process, an unreadable treaty of footnotes will be created, which only a few European lawyers will understand. The original purpose of the EU constitution, to provide the citizens with a comprehensible European basic law is no longer an issue."

"But the political substance of the failed constitution has been kept -- with far-reaching consequences for the EU … It is only of a symbolic nature that Germany as the most populous country, has the biggest voting weight. More importantly, the big four, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy, and to a lesser extent, Spain and Poland, have considerably increased their weight in relation to the smaller states which greatly outnumber them. This is important, because the EU majority decisions will extend to sensitive areas such as interior and justice policies."

"The best that can be said for the summit agreement, was that there was one at all. While the world has changed dramatically, the EU has spent its energy on navel-gazing for the past few years."

"Europe's fate rests on how it organizes its relationship to its immediate neighbors. That includes a lasting peace in the Balkans, an balanced relationship with Russia and a close link with Turkey. The EU also has to represent its interests in relation to the other powers in the world, such as the US and China. This is where the new EU foreign minister will play a central role, even if the British insist he is only to be called 'high representative.'"

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes.

"The leader of the biggest EU country welcomed the guests from Warsaw with a patronizing friendliness that recalled the visit of a poor rural nephew to his rich aunt in the big city. The image represents the facts. Poland is small, still economically weak and a new member of the European family."

"Angela Merkel was therefore well advised to treated the boorishness with friendly patience. Any hint of going too strong would have damaged her image as a clever and modest manager, who plays down her own interests. Many of our neighbors are still not averse to raising the specter of the nasty Germans from time to time."

"But in the course of the dramatic negotiations in Brussels, the hostess threatened to send the foul-mouthed nephew out of the room. She wanted to summon an Intergovernmental Conference with the agreement of 26 countries, and thus leave Poland completely isolated. But then the others made it very clear to her, that she had gone too far with the threat. Not even the Merkel fan Jean-Claude Juncker wanted to support the move. One doesn’t like to hear a German command in Europe."

The financial daily Handelsblatt writes.

"The summit opened wounds that will not be healed quickly ... Europe is eroding. There can be no longer any doubt about it ... The atmosphere was never before so marked by such mistrust and selfishness."

"In this age of creeping Euro-sklerosis, the fact that there was a treaty reform at all, is an achievement. But it is far from a magnificent victory on the part of the pro-European governments. A self-confident union professes its values, instead of concealing its own accomplishments with intricate footnotes and legal cross references."

-- Siobhán Dowling, 1.30 p.m. C.E.T