September 7, 2011
It is time for more Europe, and existing treaties may have to be amended to get there. That was the message Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered in a speech to the German parliament on Wednesday. She also called for tighter rules for those who violate euro-zone deficit rules.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has long been accused of dragging her feet in the euro-zone debt crisis -- and of shying away from the kind of greater European integration that many have been calling for. On Wednesday, however, she sang a different tune.
In a speech before German parliament, part of a general debate on the budget, Merkel made a plea for "more Europe" and said that to make Europe strong and lasting, "treaty amendments can no longer be taboo in order to bind the EU closer together." She also reminded her country that a strong Europe was in Germany's interest. "In the long term, Germany cannot be successful if Europe isn't doing well too."
It was unclear whether Merkel was referring to recent demands by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble for a new treaty which would hand far-reaching fiscal powers to Brussels or to her own 2010 demands for a Lisbon Treaty amendment strengthening deficit rules.
Merkel also said it was time to seriously consider installing a measure which would allow countries who violate European Union deficit rules to be brought before the European Court of Justice, the legal body that settles disputes between EU governments and institutions. It marked a return to her staunch position last summer that those who violate deficit rules must be automatically punished -- a position she ultimately backed away from at the urging of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Merkel's speech came amid growing concerns in the European Union that sluggish implementation of austerity measures in Greece and inconsistent focus on exorbitant debt in Italy could put the common currency under yet more pressure. Efforts to prop up the euro, however, cleared an important hurdle on Wednesday morning when the German Constitutional Court ruled that Berlin's contributions to bailout funds were legal. The chancellor welcomed the ruling in her comments to the Bundestag and said it validated her government's approach to the crisis.
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