LONDON - GERMANY has denied interfering in another country's affairs after the Foreign Minister, Klaus Kinkel, angered British politicians by urging Britain to commit itself more closely to the EU, saying "the country must reach a clear decision on its European policy".
Kinkel used his New Year message to warn Britain it must choose whether it wanted closer integration.
His remarks were interpreted in Britain as unwelcome interference from abroad, but a spokesman for the German minister said Kinkel's statement was an expression of goodwill. The spokesman also said the idea of interference in another country's affairs "in a European Union which aspires to become a political union, is by definition hardly possible," Martin Erdmann said. "But even if it were possible, it is certainly not intended."