PM pushes for Lisbon Treaty revision after divided EU summit meeting

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Germany Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during the European head of states summit in Brussels, Belgium, 16 December 2010. Reports state that European leaders sought to paper over deep divisions on how best to resolve the debt crisis ahead of a summit on 16 December 2010, and Spain and Portugal came under renewed pressure to get their finances in order. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had settled a dispute with Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the Eurogroup of countries, over the idea of issuing euro area bonds, but differences still looked likely to arise at the summit. Photo: AAP via EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

29 December 2010 12:29pm

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HIGHLIGHTING his displeasure with the turn of events at the December 16-17 EU summit, Prime Minister George Papandreou has proposed the launch of a campaign to collect up to a million signatures in favour of an official discussion within the European Union on a new and revised Lisbon Treaty.

Papandreou put the idea forward on December 18, during a meeting of ruling Pasok’s parliamentary group before the start of the debate on the 2011 budget, saying that such an initiative would be addressed to all European citizens, trade unions, national parliaments and non-governmental organisations.

At the EU’s end-of-year summit in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel squashed Papandreou’s proposal for the creation of a European Monetary Fund and the issuance of Eurobonds to aid the weaker eurozone countries that face debilitating borrowing costs.

After Germany rejected these proposals without discussion, the 27 EU leaders voted for a permanent mechanism of debt crisis management which entails a process of orderly default for troubled member states who can’t afford to repay their debts at usurious interest rates.

Papandreou established a “working group” made up of Pasok MPs and MEPs to promote his treaty revision initiative, including several former ministers such as Vasso Papandreou, Petros Efthymiou, Nasos Alevras and others.

Two days after her appointment at the working group, Vasso Papandreou, a former European Commissioner and chairwoman of parliament’s economic affairs committee, launched a scathing attack on the draft 2011 budget that was ratified late in the night of December 22 – apparently with Papandreou’s tacit approval.

The prime minister also announced plans for a party congress to decide “on policy concerning the country’s course in the new European and international environment”.

Referring to the European Union’s summit that took place in Brussels on December 17-18, Papandreou said that he began his intervention at the dinner for the EU’s leaders saying that “either we shall write history or history shall write us off” since he believes that the EU has reached a crossroads in which it must either move forwards or break down.

The prime minister also referred to other proposals that are being promoted through the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the Socialist International (SI) on the tax on stock exchange transactions and the tax on greenhouse gases that could constitute own resources for the EU.