> Alarm at superstate plan
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> Eurosceptics attack Schröder vision of a federal Europe
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It is remarkable that the Spiegel report draw much more attention in Britain than here in Germany. When it came over the wires on Saturday I did not notice it and papers today are only carrying short notices. The alarmist tone in Britain appears quite bizarre from a German perspective. Generally the reactions here are opposite than those in Britain. It is seen as a plan to reduce the powers of unelected bodies.
Johannes
The original Der Spiegel article is at: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/vorab/0,1518,130958,00.html
News wire summaries with reactions from the CDU and SPD http://de.news.yahoo.com/010429/12/1ke4c.html http://de.news.yahoo.com/010429/71/1kdwo.html http://de.biz.yahoo.com/010429/36/1kdlp.html
English AP report from today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung www.faz.com
Schröder Proposes Radical Overhaul of EU Structures
BERLIN. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is reported to be proposing a number of sweeping changes to the powers and structure of the European Union.
A report in Monday's edition of the newsmagazine Der Spiegel says Mr. Schröder's most radical suggestions include turning the EU's Commission into a European government and giving the European Parliament full power over the 15-nation group's budget. The ideas set out by Mr. Schröder are part of a draft document due to be presented at a national party conference of the Social Democratic Party in November.
The document also calls for the creation of a second chamber of the European Parliament that would bring together national ministers, along the lines of Germany's Bundesrat, the legislative body representing the states at the national level. However, the chancellor also said that a number of decision-making powers, such as EU aid allocation for infrastructure projects, should be moved back from the EU to national and regional levels.
The opposition Christian Democratic Union welcomed Mr. Schröder's proposals, especially his call for removing the unelected Commission's budgetary powers. Wolfgang Schäuble, a former CDU chairman, said the "important question is how we mark the limits of power between the European level and the national states." (AP )