Foreign Ministers Call for Stronger Ties Within Europe - New York Times

LONDON â€" Testing the theory that it often takes a crisis to bring Europeans together, 11 foreign ministers, led by Guido Westerwelle of Germany, have called for a big increase in economic, political, diplomatic and even military integration within the European Union.

The report, issued Monday by the Future of Europe Group at a meeting in Warsaw, outlines far-reaching proposals for a Europe weighed down by debt, mired in an economic slowdown and struggling to save its single currency. However, the report acknowledges that only some of the 11 ministers agreed with ideas like the eventual creation of a European army.

Nevertheless, the fact that the foreign minister of the European Union’s most powerful nation, Germany, was the report’s prime mover gives the nine-page document political significance.

Germany has argued consistently for a more federal Europe, a point of tension with its closest partner, France, which tends to be more protective of sovereignty and preoccupied with shorter-term measures to stabilize the euro.

Highlighting the difficulties confronting the European Union, the document notes, “In many parts of Europe, nationalism and populism are on the rise, while the feeling of solidarity and sense of belonging in Europe are dwindling.”

Its answer is more, not less, Europe.

In the economic sphere, the document suggests more European oversight over the budgets of national governments, a single supervisory mechanism for euro zone banks involving the European Central Bank, and more powers for the European Parliament. It adds that the euro zone’s bailout fund should become a European Monetary Fund.

How seriously the specific suggestions should be taken is difficult to judge, particularly since Mr. Westerwelle comes from a minority party in the German coalition, rather than the center-right party of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Germany’s renewal of the concept of political union reflects the fact that the German political class has become more integrationist as the euro crisis has progressed,” said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform. “But what their partners want to know is whether the Germans are really serious about believing in a more integrated Europe, or whether calling for more Europe is an emotional response â€" a sort of Pavlovian reaction â€" to the difficulties they are in.”

The foreign ministers of all of the European Union’s big members took part in the Future of Europe Group meeting, with the exception of Britain, which remains resolutely skeptical about further integration. Poland, which joined the European Union in 2004, played an active role, and the 11 participants included representatives of the six countries that started the process of European integration after World War II.

Critics believe that some countries may have participated simply to monitor what others were saying. But the report, signed by Austria, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg, reflects the rising temperature of the debate over the future of Europe.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 18, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of foreign ministers who signed the report. Eleven did so, not nine. The same error appeared in the headline.