THE German chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said yesterday that he would launch a strong defence of German national interests when EU leaders attempt to agree on a package of reforms in Berlin later this month. Bonn's determination to secure a big cut in its contribution to the EU budget has put Mr Schroder at odds with other European leaders and placed a strain on relations between France and Germany.
In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, the chancellor said it was time that other EU member-states understood that Germany had a right to defend its legitimate national interests.
"Each of our EU partners is allowed to represent its national interests clearly but we Germans alone may not apparently. It is my task to tell our partners with all due respect that we have legitimate interests too. In concrete terms, that means that we must be able to roll back our disproportionate position as a net contributor," he said.
Germany contributes DM22 billion to the EU budget each year, a sum that opposition politicians are demanding should be reduced by more than half. Mr Schroder declines to identify a target figure, but he warned EU leaders in Bonn last Friday that failure to agree the Agenda 2000 reform package could have a disastrous effect on the euro. The euro has lost 8 per cent of its value against the dollar since its launch two months ago and senior German officials warned last week that further weakening could lead to inflation and higher interest rates.
The Bonn summit exposed sharp differences between EU member-states over the future of farm subsidies, structural and cohesion funds and the overall size of the EU budget. The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, admitted yesterday that the summit in Berlin on March 24th may fail to resolve the disagreements.
Apart from the Agenda 2000 reforms, the chancellor hopes that Germany's six-month EU presidency will produce agreement on a common European immigration policy which could reduce the number of immigrants and asylum seekers coming to Germany.
"I believe that this question can only be resolved at a European level. A common European immigration policy will be on the agenda at the next EU summit. It is not acceptable that Germany should bear 60 per cent of Europe's immigration burden," he said.
Mr Schroder repeated his government's willingness to compromise on plans to extend German citizenship to many of the country's seven million foreign residents. Under a new formula, foreigners who received a German passport would have to give up their original citizenship, but not immediately.
