GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has apparently revived the idea of a "core Europe" just weeks after his Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, distanced himself from the concept.
Mr Schröder tells today's Die Zeit newspaper that the idea of a two-speed "core" Europe is "not a strategic idea" for Berlin but an inevitable consequence of enlargement "if the deepening [of the Union] doesn't follow as it necessarily must - quite simply because it must happen".
The newspaper suggests that the Chancellor was "admiring but also amazed" by his foreign minister's "way with words" in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung last month.
Asked in the interview if the idea of a "core Europe" was passé, Mr Fischer replied: "Yes, I think so. I am more convinced than ever before that Europe needs more integration and stronger institutions. But I no longer share visions of a small Europe."
The interview was perceived as Mr Fischer's official leave-taking of the idea that Europe's future lies in a core group of states lead by France and Germany moving ahead with integration, as he suggested in a speech four years ago at Berlin's Humboldt University. He said in the interview that only a united Europe could tackle the challenges of globalisation and global terrorism because a core group of states "cannot fulfil our continent's strategic dimension".
Officials in the Foreign Ministry were said to be irritated by Mr Schröder's remarks yesterday, made on the way back from Warsaw on Tuesday, but said it arose because of the differences in the political style of the two men rather than any policy gap.
"Mr Fischer is someone who thinks as a visionary, long term. Mr Schröder is more someone who says this is the reality how can we do good work here in the short term," said a spokesman in the Foreign Ministry.
However, the spokesman admitted that the eve of the EU summit in Brussels may not have been the ideal time to revive such a loaded term as "core Europe".
"It is very undiplomatic of Mr Schröder to say something, particularly during these delicate negotiations with Poland and Spain," said Prof Ulrich K. Preuß, political scientist at Berlin's Free University. "But however undiplomatic, he is realistic and probably right. A standstill on integration would have so many negative consequences, also for the accession countries, so there must be an accession dynamic."
Some of the smaller EU states are opposed to the idea of a "core" Europe. The Taoiseach Mr Ahern recently said Ireland and many other countries believed a two-speed Europe would "create a lot of difficulties, a lot of division". He said those who were frustrated with the speed of integration could use existing EU rules to forge ahead with specific projects without institutionalizing a "two-speed" structure.
However European Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi has also voiced support for the idea, saying in Dublin in January : "We can't stop Europe and there will come some day the moment in which somebody . . . must give example to go on, because Europe can not always go at the speed of a very slow wagon."