EU pledges to boost its world role

Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (r) welcomes French President Jacques Chirac (C) and Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin upon arrival yesterday at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome for the sixth Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) since the EU was founded in 1957. European leaders opened a final round of talks yesterday on the European Union's first-ever constitution. PHOTO: AFP

They also underlined that further integration of the bloc, which expands from 15 to 25 members next year, was Europe's "essential calling," according to the draft obtained by AFP.

"The imminent enlargement constitutes a historical moment which .. extends the possibility of promoting shared values and of conferring weight and authority to Europe's role in the world," it said.

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"European integration is our continent's essential calling as the instrument for a more efficacious international role for the Union," added the two-page draft.

The "Declaration of Rome" was set to be agreed by leaders of the 25 current and incoming EU member states, as they launched a two-month intergovernmental conference (IGC) aimed at finalizing the first ever constitution.

The current Italian EU presidency hopes that the talks will result in a new Treaty of Rome, echoing the 1957 text which founded the European Economic Community, the EU's forerunner.

But differences remain on a wide number of points, from voting rights to mentioning God, and analysts forecast that the IGC may stretch on into early next year.

The current Italian EU presidency wants to complete negotiations by December, to pave the way for the new treaty to be signed before European parliament elections next June.

The EU draft statement reaffirmed the EU leaders' "expectation of a conclusion of the constitutional negotiations in advance of the (European elections) in order to allow European citizens to cast their vote in full awareness of the future architecture of the Union."

Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac urged his fellow EU leaders Saturday not to open a "Pandora's box" by seeking substantial changes to a draft EU constitution, as they launched talks to finalize the text.

Chirac said every country had "reasons for dissatisfaction" with the draft constitution, drawn up over 16 months by a convention chaired by former French president, he said.

"But to contest this or that element of the compromise would inevitably open a Pandora's box and could lead to the failure of the intergovernmental conference," he said.