European Commission President Romano Prodi said Tuesday that if EU nations don't adopt a constitution this year, some may embrace more political and economic integration on their own.
"We cannot wait forever," Prodi told a news conference with the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country assumed the EU presidency Jan. 1. "The moment will come when somebody must give an example to go on. Europe cannot always go at the speed of the very, very, very slowest wagon."
Historically, he said, integration-minded EU members have always taken the fast lane when others dragged their heels.
He cited the euro, the single currency for the 15 EU states, except for Britain, Denmark and Sweden, which have retained their own currencies.
By contrast, Ahern has tried to dispel the notion of a two-speed Europe, which surfaced after last month's failure by EU leaders -- and by the 10 nations due to join the EU in May -- to agree on a European constitution.
"We don't want to look at what might happen," said Ahern whose job it is to assess why the summit last month failed. He is to recommend to the EU leaders in late March how to end the deadlock.
"We are determined to do all we can to" reach a constitutional agreement soon, he said. "We just have to see what progress we can make."
Given the relaxed late-March deadline, it may well be left to the Netherlands, which takes the EU helm July 1, to restart and complete the constitutional negotiations.
Prodi and his 20-member European Commission held a day of talks with the Irish government to discuss the EU agenda in the months ahead.
Prodi is to unveil proposed annual EU spending limits for the 2007-2013 period on Jan. 25.
The EU's 2004 budget of roughly 100 billion euros (US$126 billion) now accounts for 1 percent of its total gross national income, well below the maximum allowed level of 1.24 percent.
However, Prodi ruled out a spending freeze, as demanded by France, Britain, Germany, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands. He said if the EU economy is to become more competitive, it must boost spending on education, research and development.
After the EU leaders failed to adopt a draft constitution text last month, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder suggested a "pioneer" group of nations move ahead with closer cooperation in such areas as the economy, justice and defense.
The summit collapsed when Poland and Spain refused to accept a draft constitution reducing their say in the union. The two want to retain a system giving them almost as many votes as Germany, which has more than twice the population of either.
Germany and France back a draft charter that replaces national votes with a formula that says decisions are passed if backed by a simple majority of the 25 EU members, if these nations account for at least 60 percent of the union's 450-million population.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS