MOMENTUM IS GROWING in Germany for a referendum on further European integration, with German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle becoming the latest politician pushing for it.
Speaking to Sunday’s Bild, he said: “I hope that we have a real European constitution and that there will also be a referendum on it.”
The country’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has also been pushing for a true “political union”, which she sees as the only way to solve the debt crisis. The formation of such a union will mean Germany will “have to give up further competencies to Europe, step by step,” she said.
The referendum idea has gained support from both the government and the opposition, with the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) backing the it last week.
The head of the Christian Social Union, Horst Seehofer, also commented that ordinary Germans should be consulted on major European moves - and that such decisions could not remain a “project of the elite”, reports Reuters.
The country’s Constitutional Court is rule on 12 September on a European pact on budget discipline and the European Stability Mechanism – the new bailout facility for the bloc for which German taxpayers would be hit hardest.
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