Berlin- The European Union needs a new treaty to cope with its enlargement to include 27 members, Finnish President Tarja Halonen said Thursday on the first day of a three-day state visit to Germany. "We need a stronger house for our bigger family. The union needs a new treaty," Halonen said in reference to the accession of 10 countries in May 2004 and a further two at the beginning of this year.
Speaking to diplomats and politicians at the German Council on Foreign Relations, Halonen said that integrating the new members, most of them from formerly communist Eastern Europe, appeared to be "a longer and more difficult process than we were prepared to admit at the beginning."
The desire to join the EU had tended to submerge historical differences, she said. "Now we see some of these emerging again."
The new member countries had also shown greater self-confidence than some older EU members had expected, along with "sensitivity to instructions that seem to come from Brussels."
Halonen said Finland supported the plans and timetable for a new treaty drawn up by the current German EU presidency.
At an EU summit in Berlin in March to mark 50 years since the bloc was formed, Chancellor Angela Merkel sketched out a timetable for the EU to be placed "on a renewed common basis" by the time of the European Parliament elections in 2009.
She said the German presidency would draw up a "roadmap" before the handover to Portugal in July and that the aim was to have a new version of the constitutional treaty in place by the end of the year to give member states time to ratify it.
Earlier Thursday, Halonen held separate meetings with President Horst Koehler and Merkel.
Koehler expressed praise for Finland's highly regarded educational system. Halonen said she had come not only to talk about Finland's success in this area, but "also to learn from Germany."
In her talks with Merkel, Halonen discussed the current crisis in relations between Estonia and Russia, along with general EU issues and relations between the EU and the United States, according to a German government spokesman.
Halonen was schedule to walk through the Brandenburg Gate with Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit on Friday and to round off her visit in Munich on Saturday. dpa rpm sc
031319 GMT Mai 07
