EU:German chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the creation of a European army ahead of celebrations marking the European Union's 50th anniversary this weekend in Berlin.
The controversial call came as the last doubters agreed to sign the Berlin Declaration on Sunday, which commits the 27 member states to agree a "renewed common basis" for the union ahead of European elections in 2009.
The basis of this agreement remains an open question, however, as the existing constitutional treaty is not mentioned in the declaration.
In an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper, Dr Merkel admitted that the EU would not celebrate its first century as a "United States of Europe".
"We will not have a European federal state even in another 50 years, we will retain the variety of nation states," she said, adding that the EU "even today is a question of war and peace".
"In the EU itself we have to come closer to a European army," she said. That is opposed by several member states, including Ireland. The Government dismissed out of hand a similar call from Polish president Lech Kaczynski earlier this year.
However Dr Merkel appeared anxious to ease fears of EU colleagues arriving in Berlin today, in particular those from smaller countries.
"I learned from Helmut Kohl that Germany works best when we pay attention to the interests of the smaller states in European decisions," she said, "and when we agreed compromises along these lines, it was always good for Germany."
Dr Merkel's spokesman confirmed yesterday that she had spoken with Czech president Václav Klaus yesterday, the last hold-out on the Berlin Declaration, and "that she expects an extensive and consensual agreement on Sunday morning".
The 600-word declaration, composed after weeks of tortuous negotiations, amounts to a general call for "timely renewal" of the European Union.
"It is thanks to the love of freedom of peoples in central and eastern Europe that Europe's unnatural division was overcome," it says. "With European unity we have learned our lessons from the bloody conflicts and painful history. Today we live with each other as it was never possible before."
The declaration lists common challenges "that do not stop at national borders" - climate change, international terrorism and organised crime - and expresses the desire for the EU to play a leading global role as a peacekeeper and in the fight against poverty, hunger and sickness.
Above all, the text calls the EU a guarantor of democracy, stability and prosperity.
"Our common history demands we protect this fortune for future generations," says the declaration. "We know: Europe is our common future."
Aside from official celebrations, Berlin will celebrate the 50th anniversary with a "European Club Night", all-night museum tours and a "Volksfest" on either side of the Brandenburg Gate, from 1961 to 1989 the exclusion zone around the Berlin Wall. Bratwurst and beer is expected to dominate the street festival while an open-air concert has been organised with an eclectic programme, from ageing rocker Joe Cocker is a youth orchestra playing Wagner.