Merkel: EU Needs Treaty Change to Survive

Wolfgang Franz (L), president of the Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim, stands next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU, R) in the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, 09 November 2011. EPA/BGNES

The EU needs treaty reform in order to survive the effects of the debt crisis in the euro zone, declared German Chancellor Angela Merkel less than 2 years after the latest new EU treaty, the Lisbon Treaty, entered into force.

Merkel stated in a speech at a conference in Berlin Wednesday that it was high time for Europe to achieve a "breakthrough" on changes to its ground rules, as cited by DPA.

In her words, the situation in Europe had become "unpleasant" and the bloc would not survive unless it showed the world it was capable of adapting to the debt crisis.

"It is time for a breakthrough to a new Europe. A community that says, regardless of what happens in the rest of the world, that it can never again change its ground rules, that community simply can't survive. I'm convinced of this. Because the world is changing so much, we must be prepared to answer the challenges. That will mean more Europe, not less Europe," the German Chancellor argued.

Merkel's rhetoric has been in line with the German push for changes to the bloc's Lisbon Treaty which was ratified only with great difficulty at the end of 2009.

International media cite German officials admitting that changing the EU treaty could take up to a year even on the most ambitious projections.

The German leadership generally hopes that through the euro zone and the EU could win the confidence of world markets through a rapid strengthening of the EU's fiscal stability rules.

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