RPT-Czechs slam Germany over EU birthday declaration

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By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN, March 21 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic accused EU president Germany of stifling debate over a declaration marking the European Union's 50th birthday and which Berlin hopes will pave the way to reviving the union's stalled constitution.

In comments published in a Czech newspaper on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra was quoted suggesting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's secretive drafting process was unfair to other European Union members.

"As of today we have not received the text and when we do get it, we won't be able to change anything in it," Vondra was quoted as saying in Pravo newspaper. "Compromise is not when someone writes something and all the rest say yes or no."

The so-called Berlin Declaration, due to be issued at a summit on Sunday, is Merkel's bid to lay the foundation for reviving the EU's stalled constitution, but critics argue it is a fudge that will be anything but concrete.

The Czechs are also irked by the fact that only Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering will sign the declaration, the contents of which remain secret.

"We take (this as) evidence that Berlin takes full responsibility for the text and will allow other member states to interpret it in their own way," Czech negotiator Jan Zahradil, a European Parliament member, told Reuters.

Zahradil was in Berlin on Wednesday to press German officials to change course. He also said Prague was unhappy about the fact the text it was expecting to receive in the next 24 hours would be the final version and could not be amended.

German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm rejected the Czech criticism, saying Zahradil had had every chance to discuss the text with German officials during the drafting process.

"Merkel fully informed EU leaders of her intentions with the signing at a dinner during the EU summit in Brussels," he said. "We've finished work on the text and are now in the process of seeking approval from EU leaders by the end of the week."

"In the end there will be a text that is a good text, I am convinced of that, that is backed by all 27 members," he said.

BIRTHDAY PARTY

The Czechs belong to a handful of EU states that would rather see Merkel scrap her plans to revive a constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, and which resisted any explicit mention of it in the declaration.

Merkel originally wanted the declaration to call for an EU charter to be in place by 2009.

But EU diplomats said the text, which will be two or three pages long, has been watered down to the point where it only refers indirectly to a charter -- a need for a future EU that is "capable of acting" and has "better decision-making structures".

Zahradil said Prague would not treat this language as a commitment to any kind of new charter or treaty.

"We won't wreck the whole thing, but we will interpret it as we see fit, therefore not as a commitment to a new treaty or a version of it by 2009," Zahradil said.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said on Saturday that Warsaw would back the declaration even if it did not include wording Poland wants, including a reference to Europe's Christian roots.

Sunday's signing ceremony will be the climax of a two-day 50th birthday party and informal EU summit in Berlin.

Asked whether the European Commission was happy with the fact that not all member states would sign, its chief spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said the EU executive trusted Germany to find the best way to send a message of confidence.

He said the novel fact was that the declaration would be endorsed by the EU's three institutions -- the Council of member states, the Parliament and the Commission.

The EU began as the six-nation European Economic Community and was created by the Treaty of Rome signed on March 25, 1957. It has grown into a sprawling 27-nation union that is the world's biggest trading bloc and covers most of the continent. (Additional reporting by Markus Krah in Berlin, Paul Taylor and Darren Ennis in Brussels and Jan Lopatka in Prague)

Keywords: EU ANNIVERSARY/DECLARATION