This operation to amend the constitution has already become one of the government's most delicate political initiatives. If it succeeds, it would remove one of the euro's biggest problems: The 17 eurozone countries have a common currency but do not have a common finance policy, a fact which partly explains why the euro is teetering at the edge of an abyss. This is tackled in the key sentence of the new paper. "We need more Europe in key policy areas", it says.
Merkel hesitated for a long time before making such a statement in public. It was three quarters of a year ago that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble reportedly took the chancellor aside and explained to her that the euro crisis could not be resolved with spur-of-the-moment policies. He told the chancellor that he was in favour of using the crisis to advance Europe's political unity.
Merkel and Schäuble aim to make the Stability Pact more binding in the future. That would mean the European Court of Justice could take action against budget offenders. If necessary, even a Brussels cost-cutting commissioner would be able to keep budget offenders on a short leash. According to the plan, this individual would have the power to draw up guidelines for a debtor country's budget - without, however, being able to influence details such as tax law and social policy.
The Chancellery wants this aspect of the EU reform approved as quickly as possible. Merkel wants to show the financial markets that Europe has the strength to push through sweeping changes. As a second step, Merkel and Schäuble want the EU to move towards becoming a political union. This entails transferring more sovereign rights to the EU -- and it would mean amending Germany's constitution. This could either be accomplished under Article 23, requiring a two-thirds majority in Germany's federal parliament, the Bundestag, as well as the Bundesrat, the upper legislative chamber that represents the states -- or, as a more challenging alternative, under Article 146 of the constitution, in other words, through direct participation by the people. Article 146 is a tool that allows for the drafting of a new constitution following a national referendum.
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