Related: Merkel vows to revive EU
constitution
WARSAW, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- German
Ambassador to Poland Reinhard Schweppe on Tuesday urged Warsaw to make its
position clear on the stalled European Union (EU) constitution.
Germany, who took up the rotating EU presidency on
Jan. 1, took it as one of its main missions during the half-year mandate to push
forward the process of drawing up a constitution, Schweppe told a news
conference here.
Within the next few weeks or months, Germany wants to
learn of Poland's reservations on the charter and the actual difficulties and
problems Poland faces once a charter is adopted, the ambassador said.
The EU charter has been ratified by 18 states among
the now 27-member bloc, but suffered stunning defeats in Dutch and French
referendums in 2005.
Poland, who has been reluctant to voice support for
the charter, worries that if the EU integration process develops too fast its
goals might cease to remain realistic.
Germany, one of the major powers inside the European
Union, has repeatedly said that it wants to see the charter -- in some form or
the other -- adopted by 2009, but gave no indication as to how that might be
achieved.
Schweppe reiterated that Berlin hopes all EU members
can reach an agreement on the charter.
Also on Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged in
Berlin to renew negotiations over the constitution, but said it would be an
uphill battle to rally 27 nations around a new charter unless they all
cooperate.
"Of course, we need the cooperation of all member
states," she said, adding that it is necessary to set out a road map about how
to proceed.
Germany plans to consult all 27 EU nations to see
what bits can be rescued from the already existing charter and draw up a new
mutually acceptable one.