GERMANY: Departing chancellor Gerhard Schröder has warned European Union institutions to recognise their limits and stop interfering needlessly in the affairs of member states.
He said people were irritated that the EU was ineffective in areas where it should be effective, such as common foreign policy, yet overly efficient in "using common market principles to justify European regulations for which there is no need".
"Nothing infuriates citizens more than the suspicion of a creeping loss of sovereignty," wrote Mr Schröder in Die Zeit newspaper yesterday.
Mr Schröder will use next week's meeting of EU leaders at Hampton Court in England, probably his final appearance on the European stage, to draw parallels between Germany's general election result and the ongoing European social model debate.
He urged British prime minister Tony Blair yesterday to accept the wish of the people of France and Germany to balance market reforms with social cohesion.
German voters voted Mr Schröder's government from office last month, but refused to give a clear liberal reform mandate to the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), forcing a grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD).
Coalition negotiations began in Berlin on Monday and will continue for a month.
The challenge facing the new German government is the same challenge facing all EU member states, he said: to let "economic rationality and united public spirit complement each other".
He said the ongoing London-Paris budget row was "shameful" considering the financial sacrifices that less well-off new member states had offered to resolve it at the recent summit.
"Personally, I don't differentiate between old and new member states since that summit. Our friends in the accession states have shown that they live up to their European responsibility," he wrote.
Mr Schröder said it was crucial not to abandon the constitutional treaty because it was essential for the EU of 25 and an EU with Turkey.
Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel has reprimanded Mr Schröder for telling officials in Ankara this week that her idea of a "privileged partnership" with Brussels was off the table.
She demanded Mr Schröder, now caretaker leader, consult her before making any further foreign policy statements in the coming weeks.