Angela Merkel played a significant role in reaching a compromise on the adoption of the EU constitutional treaty
German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the signing of the EU constitutional treaty on December 13 in Lisbon and called on the Bundestag to ratify the agreement as soon as possible.
According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the upcoming signing of the EU constitutional treaty will be a “historic breakthrough for Europe”.
Speaking on Wednesday, December 12, in the Bundestag, the head of the German government expressed hope for an early ratification of the treaty by the German parliament, reports the dpa news agency. “We must be aware that our common future is a new, more democratic Europe,” Merkel said in Berlin.
New old contract
The document, called The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty), will be signed by the heads of state and government of 27 member countries of the community on December 13 in the capital of Portugal. It will replace the still not adopted draft of the European Constitution, against which in 2005, at a national referendum, residents of France and the Netherlands voted.
The main points of the reform treaty were developed in June this year during the German presidency of the EU and finally approved at the EU summit in Lisbon in the fall. Brussels expects that it will be possible to ratify the new treaty by the spring of 2008, and it should enter into force in the second half of 2009.
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