EU:The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday told the European Parliament it must set a timetable for adopting an EU constitution and she would attempt to move the issue forward by speaking to the countries that have not yet ratified it.
Dr Merkel told the parliament during her first appearance there that a decision on what to do with the constitution must be reached by June. The constitution has been ratified by 18 states, but was rejected in Dutch and French referendums in 2005.
Dr Merkel said she would consult all 27 EU nations to hear their reservations about the constitution and to determine which parts could be rescued to form the basis of a new document.
The chancellor, who outlined an ambitious programme for the Germany presidency, said she wanted to save as much as possible of the draft text, which was designed to accelerate policy-making and give the EU, now with 489 million people, more visibility on the world stage by creating the posts of EU president and foreign minister.
"We need a foreign minister for Europe. That's enough of a reason to adopt a constitutional treaty," Dr Merkel told the assembly, which gave her a standing ovation.
"We must give a soul to Europe; we have to find Europe's soul. Any failure could be an historic failure," she said.
In her wide-ranging address, Dr Merkel also said that completing global trade talks would be one of the priorities of Germany's presidency, and she urged Europe to take a "resolute stand" to achieve a successful outcome. She also said the EU needed to co-operate more with the US on climate change in order to achieve a global environmental treaty by 2012.
Dr Merkel said the EU should strength its economic ties with the US, still the EU's most important trading partner.
She also called for a broad partnership with Russia, but warned that the EU could not ignore Russia's squabbles with neighbouring countries. She called Russia's recent decision to cut oil exports in a dispute with neighbouring Belarus "worrying".
In a week which saw the formation of a new right-wing grouping in the parliament, the chancellor used the occasion to address the issue of tolerance.
"Tolerance is the soul of Europe," she said, to loud applause from the parliamentarians.
Among the liberties in need of protection, she said, was the freedom to voice opinions that upset others, freedom to believe or not to believe in religion and freedom of artistic expression.
"Europe should never have the slightest understanding for intolerance, for violence by right- or left-wing extremists or violence carried out in the name of a religion," she said.
"Tolerance digs its own grave if it does not defend itself against intolerance."
In her formal speech, Dr Merkel said her priorities in external policy over the next six months would be Kosovo, the Middle East, Iran's nuclear programme, Afghanistan, the European Neighbourhood Policy, the WTO, the EU/US summit and a new partnership agreement with Russia.
She said the EU needed to be what she termed a trailblazer on the issue of climate change and she said an EU-African summit was needed to redefine the union's relationship with Africa.
She reminded MEPs that she had grown up in the former East Germany and up to the age of 35 had seen "the European Union from outside". She then thought of it as an unparalleled historic success which had secured freedom for the people of Europe and brought them prosperity.
Now, on the inside of Europe, she found it even more attractive and there was no better place for anyone to live.