Germany to Help Solve Constitutional Crisis

According to bbc News, Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber, who leads the Christian Social Union (csu), has “demanded a complete overhaul of the future constitution for Europe” (June 22).

That the constitution needs an overhaul is without doubt. Thus far, France and the Netherlands have rejected the constitution in referenda. Britain has suspended its plans for a referendum, and most of the rest of the countries that planned to take the matter to the people have now postponed their referenda.

Prime Minister Stoiber’s statements are interesting for several reasons. Of primary interest is the more aggressive stance Germany is taking in global geopolitics. In Stoiber’s own words: “The time of checkbook diplomacy belongs to the past once and for all” (ibid.). In other words, the time has come for Germany to take a more active role in the European Union’s direction.

Stoiber has criticized the EU over some fundamental issues. Recently he said, “We must finish with a policy of hasty enlargement, with the mania for ever more European regulations and ever more Brussels bureaucracy.” He wants to see a Europe that is efficient and powerful, not loaded down with government inefficiency.

Angela Merkel—Stoiber’s political partner and the pick to replace Gerhard Schröder as Germany’s chancellor in the fall—confirms the role her country should play: “Germany must again become an honest broker for the interests of all those involved in the EU” (EU Observer, June 20). That is surely a leadership role.

In other words, Europe should be efficient and should be led by a revitalized Germany.

That is the conservatives’ plan. In the wake of the constitution crisis, watch for Germany to take an even more prominent role in European politics. Europe will become less bureaucratic and by necessity less democratic. There will be less talk, less consultation, less wheeling and dealing, and simply more lightning-speed action.

And watch for German politicians, like Stoiber, to tone up their rhetoric—speaking not just for Germany, but on behalf of all Europe. That’s the overhaul Europe will soon experience.

For more on this subject, see our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.