Austrian and Danish politicians yesterday joined British Conservatives in condemning German proposals for reform of the European Union. The Austrian Chancellor, Dr Wolfgang Schussel, said Vienna did not want a "European superstate" and Denmark's ruling Social Democrats dismissed the proposals as unrealistic.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's Social Democrats yesterday published a draft resolution on Europe to be considered at a party conference in November. The 20-page document calls for the Commission to be transformed into "a strong European executive" and for the European Parliament to be given full control of the EU budget.
The party wants to replace the Council of Ministers - where a member-state's representatives currently make most of the important decisions in the EU - with a second chamber of parliament similar to Germany's Bundesrat.
British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair yesterday sought to play down the impact of the proposals but Conservative politicians claimed that Germany wanted to turn the EU into a centralised superstate.
"These proposals will lead Europe in the wrong direction. Chancellor Schroder and his allies in Britain and elsewhere are badly out of step," the Tory spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Francis Maude, said.
Although Mr Schroder wants the EU to take more responsibility for foreign policy, internal security and immigration, he proposes returning some policy areas to member-states and regions. These include agriculture and structural policy, which account for most of the EU budget.
And the Chancellor insists that policy areas for which member-states and Brussels share responsibility, such as the single market and competition, should not be used to "hollow out" the responsibilities of national governments.
The policy document repeats Germany's call for a transitional period before citizens of new member-states in central and eastern Europe are allowed to work elsewhere in the EU. And it calls for the Charter of Fundamental Rights to be incorporated in the EU treaties and given legal force.
Berlin insists that its proposals are aimed at making the EU more transparent and democratically accountable and points out that, at present, the Council of Ministers takes most important decisions behind closed doors. The new second chamber would represent the interests of member-states but debates would be carried out in public and citizens would know how their national representatives voted.
The foreign policy spokesman of Austria's governing People's Party, Mr Michael Spindelegger, said the German proposals were a step backwards which would replace national governments with an EU government.
The leader of Germany's opposition Christian Democrats, Ms Angela Merkel, expressed broad support for the Chancellor's proposals but some Bavarian conservatives suggested Berlin should try to make the EU leaner rather than more powerful.