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Prodi Urges EU to Push Ahead Enlargement
European Commission President Romano Prodi warned Sunday that the European Union must push ahead with enlargement or risk seeing the continent split in two again.
"We can't take responsibility for the rebirth of a Berlin Wall, " he told a seminar in the central Italian town of Arezzo, urging Italy, a founding member of the EU, to play a full role in calling for enlargement and act as a counter-weight in French and German- led plans for speedier EU integration.
"It's a grandiose and unprecedented design to create the world' s greatest economic reality with democracy and respect for the individual countries' diversity," said Prodi.
Quoted in the Milanese daily, Il Sole-24 Ore, Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini supported the Franco-German proposal for a two-speed Europe, but said it should not be envisaged as revolving around a " preferential axis" between Paris and Berlin.
Dini said he favors inserting a mechanism into the EU treaties to allow countries that want to move more quickly towards integration to do so.
"I think it is a good thing if Germany and France are on the same wavelength on some fundamental issues on the EU agenda," said Dini.
"Precisely because the Franco-German alliance is on the way, there is a need for a country with deep European roots which can use this alliance, knowing that it is indispensable for Europe's future to stand as a guarantee for those who may feel fear or anguish before this great design," said Prodi.
According to Prodi, France and Germany support "strengthened cooperation" and replacing unanimity with majority voting in EU decisions on a much broader range of topics, but it remains an " open question" whether the formula will be an intergovernmental agreement, or a supranational one, as he would prefer.
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