EU leaders divided on way forward for constitution

European Union leaders have agreed to take a tough new line on EU hopefuls - but remained divided today over how to reform the faltering EU constitution before any new expansion of a union that will swell to 27 members in January.

The EU charter was meant to serve as a blueprint for how to govern an expanded EU after the bloc welcomed 10 new members, most of them ex-communist nations from Eastern Europe, in 2004.

But the constitution – which required approval from all 25 EU nations to go into effect – was shot down last year by French and Dutch voters, whose “no” to the charter laid bare the reluctance in parts of Europe to let more countries into the union.

EU leaders gave themselves until the end of 2008 to “reflect” on the constitution.

But some leaders meeting at the two-day summit said the bloc must resuscitate the charter before it can make any major decisions about how quickly and how far the union should expand.

Enlargement has been a key focus of the summit. Late Thursday, the leaders endorsed a decision to partially freeze Turkey’s accession talks over its refusal to honour a pact to open ports and airports to EU member Cyprus, whose government Turkey does not recognise.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Turkey, which is aiming to become the bloc’s first predominantly Muslim member, must move on the Cyprus issue “as soon as possible”.

Turkey’s talks opened in October 2005 and were expected to last at least a decade, but the partial freeze was likely to slow that timetable down even further.

Some nations, led by Britain and Poland, insist the EU must welcome aspiring members and say the partial freeze with Turkey may reinforce anti-EU feelings in the country of 70 million.

By slowing down the talks, “we have gone too far. It was too harsh on Turkey,” said Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

But with Romania and Bulgaria joining the EU in January, bringing the bloc to 27, many are questioning whether it’s time to shut the door. Some fear expansion will dilute old members’ influence, and let in too much cheap labour that would cost people in affluent countries jobs, undercut their wages and threaten their cherished social welfare.

Leaders stressed to Turkey and other would-be candidates that the union will not cut any corners before letting them in.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed to western Balkan countries that they must work harder to implement the required reforms if they want to be considered for EU membership.

In a summit statement to be formally adopted later Friday, the leaders make it clear that aspiring members – Turkey as well as Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – must address administrative and judicial reforms as well as the fight against corruption without delay.

Merkel said Berlin would focus on reviving the EU constitution when Germany takes over the rotating EU presidency from Finland in January, with an aim of having the treaty in place by 2009.

Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday said Luxembourg and Spain – two of the 18 EU countries that ratified the charter – would launch a “friends of the constitution” initiative with a conference in Madrid in mid-January.

Britain, however, urged against conditioning enlargement on a constitution.

“We have always rejected the notion that there has to be an automatic link between enlargement and institutional change,” Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said yesterday.

Also at the summit, EU leaders failed to agree on how to streamline police and counterterrorism cooperation across the 25 nations but backed plans to boost air and sea patrols along Europe’s southern borders to stem the soaring number of migrants – mainly from Africa – landing on EU shores.

They also affirmed a five-point Middle East peace initiative demanding an immediate ceasefire, formation of a Palestinian unity government, the exchange of prisoners between Israel and the Palestinians, talks between Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president, and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a ceasefire.

The summit expressed its “deep concern” about the deteriorating situation in volatile Darfur in western Sudan, but stopped short of taking any concrete action.