European Union leaders set an end-of-year target for drafting a new treaty to replace the failed EU constitution, trying to prevent decision-making paralysis as the bloc starts its second half century. At a meeting to mark the EU’s 50th anniversary, leaders agreed to negotiate a new treaty as rapidly as possible so it can take effect by a mid-2009 deadline. „The European Union as it is today isn’t sufficiently capable of acting,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Berlin press conference today after hosting the birthday party.

Leaders will work out a new treaty „as quickly as possible.” Voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the constitution in 2005, throwing the EU into institutional limbo and slowing the march toward a more integrated Europe. Divisions over how to revive it have widened since then. Negotiations would start after Portugal takes over the EU presidency in July, making the end of 2007 the effective deadline for rewriting the rulebook to allow time for ratification by the 27 countries, several prime ministers said. „We must conclude at the latest in December this year to make sure that a new treaty can enter into force before June 2009,” Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview.

EU rules have evolved piecemeal since six countries signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957. A complex „qualified majority” voting system governs business laws and regulations, and sensitive areas such as taxes, spending, immigration and foreign policy are subject to national vetoes. A revamped constitutional treaty would have to be ratified by all 27 member states, a process that would take at least a year given that many countries would have to hold referendums on the matter.

All EU leaders signed off in 2004 on the constitution, which would streamline decision-making and create the posts of president and foreign minister. It requires unanimous ratification and so far 18 of the 27 have done so. The leaders today endorsed a „Berlin Declaration” that sets the mid-2009 deadline for establishing a „renewed common basis.” The text leaves out the word „constitution,” a term that evoked fears of a too-powerful EU.

Asked whether an accord this year on a new text is realistic, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in an interview: „I hope so. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to have ratification in every country before 2009.” Germany will push for a „very tight” calendar for negotiating a new treaty when the leaders next meet in June, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said. New leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have expressed doubts about the constitution, and candidates in France’s presidential election are sparring over whether to put a renegotiated treaty to another referendum.

France became the first founding country to reject an EU treaty with the 2005 veto, and Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal would subject the new treaty to a referendum as well. Her rival Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, is calling for a „mini treaty.” France’s position won’t become clear until after the election in May. France was represented today by Jacques Chirac, attending the last EU summit of his 12 years in power.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende pledged to work „constructively” on a new rulebook, telling reporters yesterday that the 2005 veto didn’t make the Netherlands a „problem country.” Luxembourg and Austria, two countries that have ratified, are pushing for the EU to salvage as much as possible of the original constitution and not to cave in to calls for a scaled- back treaty. (finnland.newsroom, Bg)