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It was during a trip to a destroyed Germany in 1947 when Max Kohnstamm, a Dutchman working as a private secretary for queen Wilhelmina, became deeply convinced that Europe should take "common responsibility" for its post-war future. >

All three signatories in their speeches used the occasion not only to look back on 50 years of "Europe" since the 1957 Rome treaty - but also to give a clear political touch to the festive event by calling for a new EU treaty.

erman leader Angela Merkel has said she will continue to apply her strategy of reviving the EU constitution by holding confidential talks with national officials, despite criticism that the strategy impedes democratic debate.

Die Einigung der Staats- und Regierungschefs auf ehrgeizige Ziele in der Klimapolitik beim Frühjahrsgipfel der EU wurde mit einer Mischung aus Enthusiasmus und Besorgnis aufgenommen. EurActiv fasst die wichtigsten Reaktionen zusammen.

And today, surveys continue to show a lack of enthusiasm. A Financial Times poll of the five biggest EU states published on Monday (19 March) show that just 25 percent of those asked feel that life in their country had improved since it joined the EU, while 44 percent feel it has become worse.

Poland plans to propose a new voting system in the upcoming EU treaty talks that will be based on square roots of populations instead of simple populations. The so-called "Penrose square root law" would give Warsaw more say against Berlin, with one Polish official already talking about potential Polish vetoes in the game.

Conceived in 2003 and 2004, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has now had two years of operational experience. This initial experience has seen a sorting out of the partner states, with Action Plans drawn up for five Eastern and seven Southern partner states. This paper distinguishes among these 12 states between the ‘willing’ and the ‘passive’; and among the other partner states without Action Plans between the ‘reluctant’ and the ‘excluded’. The authors argue that these groupings should be the basis for stronger differentiation in the policy packages offered by the EU. The authors also argue that the general political context now calls for a strong reinforcement of the ENP, since the benign situation of 2004 has given way now to a more menacing one, given threats to European values bearing down on the EU from all sides. Accordingly, they outline a 15-point programme for achieving a qualitative upgrading of the ENP, to give it strategic leverage, rather than allowing it to be seen as a poor cousin of the enlargement process.

A referendum to decide whether Romanian President Basescu will be impeached or not on alleged charges of having violated the constitution has been set for 19 May 2007, as doubts are raised over the country's ability to meet EU standards.

The dispute has raised concerns over Romania's ability to meet European requirements on judicial matters which could affect its capacity to absorb EU funds.

The EU stated that «the future of the Western Balkans rests within the European Union». On an economic level, however, the establishment of a market economy and the capability to stand the competition in the single market have been formulated as prerequisites for an EU-accession. As the contributions to this book from experts of the region demonstrate, strategies to create the demanded competitive structures in the countries of the Western Balkans vary, depending on the different stages of development, inherited economic structures and the previous transition and integration process. In this context, the articles mainly concentrate on the actual economic development, trade performance, the attraction of FDI and endogenous determinants of competitiveness as education and innovation in the analysed economies. This book follows the first compendium on the region edited by S. Kusic. «Path-Dependent Development in the Western Balkans - The Impact of Privatization», published 2005 by Peter Lang.

EU leaders have congratulated Nicolas Sarkozy on winning the French election while making it clear they now expect a reinvigorated and constructive France to come back to the European negotiating table on the bloc's future.

The enlarged European Union needs new instruments for exporting stability and change into the fragile regions and countries beyond its borders. That is why the EU is developing and implementing the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): a strategic concept which is to enhance the Unionïs capability to be a driver of reform - without automatically promising the " golden carrot" of membership to the neighbours. This book provides the reader with information on what ENP wants, how it works and what the prospects of the Unionïs cooperation with neighbouring countries are.

The Czech Republic wants a new EU treaty to include a clause allowing groups of EU states to opt out of Brussels legislation, in a plan set to re-ignite the debate on a two-speed Europe.

The voting system and where member states should have a right to a veto are shaping up to be the two biggest issues at the treaty summit next month in Brussels with diplomats already gearing themselves up for a long meeting.

EU citizens are more ambitious about what Europe should do in the future than its political leaders, a new report summing up a series of popular debates shows.

The report, published on Thursday (10 May), refers to the main conclusions of all national debates and shows that citizens in most countries favour action in social policy where Europe does not hold key powers and which is generally not foreseen as an area for major future initiatives.

MEPs have urged Croatia to make progress on EU accession criteria but at the same time said that full membership will not be considered before the EU reforms its own institutions.

Croatia expects to join the EU as a full member in 2009, but MEPs on 25 April 2007 stressed that the current EU institutional framework (Nice Treaty) needs to be reformed before any further enlargements take place.

France's Nicolas Sarkozy will seek to maintain as much of the rejected EU constitution as possible in the upcoming talks on a new treaty for the bloc, a top aide to the president-elect has told EUobserver. Alain Lamassoure, a prominent centre-right MEP and tipped to be the new Europe minister in the Sarkozy government, said Paris will agree to stick "as much as possible to the original text.