Germany wants new EU powers to oversee failing countries’ budgets

Germany, the EU’s largest economy, has long argued for more national responsibilities, including over budgets, to be transferred to European institutions, but faces strong resistance from other member states.

Mrs Merkel hopes a summit of EU leaders in December can agree a concrete date for the start of the convention on a new treaty, according to German news magazine, Der Spiegel.

The idea, which Spiegel said Mrs Merkel’s European affairs adviser floated at meetings in Brussels, recalls the 100-plus strong convention of EU lawmakers set up in 2001 – inspired by the Philadelphia Convention that led to the adoption of the US federal constitution – charged with the task of preparing a European constitution.

The charter that finally emerged was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005 and it became instead the basis of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.

Many member states, recalling the lengthy disputes and setbacks that preceded the Lisbon Treaty’s entry into force, are said to be reluctant to embark on  another prolonged process of institutional reform.

Some countries such as Ireland would have to hold a referendum on any new treaty and the process would increase pressure in Britain – where opposition to closer EU political union runs high – for a withdrawal from the EU. However, Germany believes a much closer fiscal and political union – with EU oversight of national budgets – is needed to ensure that member states get their public finances fully in order and to restore stability to the euro currency.

In an interview published today, Spiegel writes: “The federal government would like to further European integration,” adding that Mrs Merkel advocated a meeting of heads of state and government “to set a new legal basis for the EU.”

The magazine says Mrs Merkel’s European affairs advisor Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut led talks on the topic in Brussels and that a date for the meeting is expected to be set at an EU summit due at the end of the year.

It also states that one of Berlin’s proposals concerns the role of the European Court of Justice, which “could acquire the right to monitor the budgets of member states and punish those that run up a deficit.”

But “the proposal has not stirred enthusiasm among the member states,” the magazine added, saying that “at an informal gathering of 10 foreign ministers, a majority rejected the idea of such a meeting put forward by Germany’s Guido Westerwelle.”

Last night, the SNP insisted that an independent Scotland would still be heavily involved in the debate. A spokesman said: “Scotland is already an integral part of the EU – and as an independent state will be in exactly the same position as the rest of the UK as a successor state. Legal, constitutional and European experts have all confirmed that an independent Scotland would continue in EU membership.”