The European Union will celebrate its 50th birthday here Sunday in grand style, with all-night street parties and cakes from all over the continent. But its members are squabbling, as usual, over what to wish for when the time comes to blow out the candles.
For months, diplomats have labored to draft a formal birthday message that would highlight the historic accomplishments of the union, such as the creation of the euro currency and the elimination of many border controls. The 27 countries that belong to the bloc are struggling mightily to agree on the wording of the platitudes, however, not to mention their goals.
German diplomats, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been pushing for the adoption of "the Berlin Declaration," a grandly titled document that would prod the union to adopt a constitution by 2009. The document sets a goal of renewing "the common foundation on which the European Union is built" by overhauling its bureaucratic bylaws.
Although the declaration is nonbinding and almost devoid of specifics, hardly anyone is willing to sign it. The Poles are upset that the document makes no mention of Europe's Christian heritage. The British are unhappy that it singles out the euro for praise, ignoring the pound. And while the declaration doesn't actually contain the word "constitution," veiled references to the idea led other countries to balk, especially the French and the Dutch, whose voters soundly rejected a proposed European constitution in 2005.
As a result, the declaration -- a draft of which includes the phrase "We, the peoples of Europe" -- is likely to be signed only by three individuals: Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Hans-Gert Poettering, president of the European Parliament.
Other European leaders have promised the Germans that they won't stand in the way of the declaration, which will be adopted as long as no one formally objects. But skepticism still runs deep. In an interview Friday with the BBC, Czech President Vaclav Klaus derided the document as "Orwellian Eurospeak."
Renewed push for constitution
The main sticking point is whether the European Union should have a constitution. Ever since the six original members signed the Treaty of Rome a half-century ago, the bloc has been governed according to an ever-growing pile of bylaws, financial regulations and legal precedents, but no common code of values.
Starting in 2002, a convention headed by former French president Valry Giscard d'Estaing devoted a year and a half to drafting a constitution, but the ratification process collapsed in 2005 after the two referendum defeats. Each country in the European Union must approve such a measure before it can take effect.
Dutch and French voters -- as well as critics in other countries -- complained that the bloc had expanded too quickly, from 15 members in 2004 to 27 today. Sentiment was also widespread that the organization lacked public input. Others said bureaucrats at E.U. headquarters in Brussels had become answerable to no one as they issued more and more regulations governing everyday life, from cheese production to environmental protection.
After taking a couple of years to regroup, however, proponents of the constitution are gingerly resuming their efforts.
Using language usually reserved for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Merkel said she would unveil a "road map" by June that would lay out a way to win approval of a constitution by 2009. "We need an E.U. constitutional treaty which is suited to the decision-making mechanism of a larger E.U.," she said in an interview with Bild, Germany's largest newspaper.
Supporters argued that a new accord is necessary to streamline the bureaucracy and give the European Union new powers, such as a foreign minister who could represent the entire bloc. Without a constitution, they warned, Europe risks losing some of the economic and political gains it has achieved in recent years.
"Europe could still fail," Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Friday in a speech in Rome. "For us, completing the process of reviving Europe before 2009 is an imperative that we cannot ignore."
Merkel and German diplomats have been pushing the issue in part because their country holds the E.U. presidency, a status that rotates among member countries every six months. But Juergen Neyer, a German political scientist, said the country has increasingly tied its future to the fate of the bloc.
"Europe is in desperate need of a constitutional treaty," said Neyer, director of the European studies program at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt on the Oder. "If the European vision is in crisis, then the German idea of its place in the world is also in crisis."
But he and other analysts said backers of the constitution were repeating old mistakes by drafting the declaration behind closed doors and keeping it secret from the public. The final wording won't be disclosed until Sunday.
"If they speak as 'we, the people of Europe' but do not involve the people of Europe in the process, then something has gone wrong," said Andreas Maurer, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. "You cannot continue to have this kind of decision making in this era of parliamentary democracy."
Special correspondent Shannon Smiley contributed to this report.