Germany takes helm of G8 and 27-member EU

(BERLIN) - Germany took the helm of the European Union and the Group of Eight club of rich nations on Monday with the self-appointed task of striving to relaunch the Middle East peace drive and the EU constitution.

Berlin's presidency of the EU comes as its ranks swelled to 27 with the adhesion overnight of Bulgaria and Romania, making it more pressing still for the bloc to restructure its institutions and revive the shelved treaty.

Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to use the next six months to draw up a "roadmap" of how the EU can get the divisive 200-page text that was shot down by French and Dutch voters last year back on track.

"Europe needs a constitutional treaty in order to be able to function," she said in a statement on Monday.

"At the end of our presidency, we should have a roadmap which shows the way towards making a treaty a reality."

The chancellor has also put energy security and the environmental crisis at the top of her packed agenda but warned against excessive expectations of Germany's dual presidencies of the EU and the G8.

Germany last held the reins of both blocs in 1999, before Russia became a regular at the table of most industrialised nations and the former communist countries of eastern Europe joined the EU club.

Merkel now has the task of steering the EU towards a new partnership with Moscow as the current agreement expires at the end of 2007. This is central to Europe's aim of securing its energy supply amid fears that Russia is using its oil and gas resources as a foreign policy tool.

However, negotiations have been hampered by Polish stone-walling and Russia's refusal to ratify an energy charter.

Merkel used her New Year's address to call for unity within Europe and said on Monday that the bloc's half a billion citizens needed to be assured that they shared sound prospects for the future.

"Europe can only remain strong if its people have a perspective," she said.

"Many are asking themselves: 'Is Europe making us more secure and prosperous? Does it have too much red tape?' We will work hard to answer your questions."

As champagne corks popped in Sofia and Bucharest, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the latest expansion of the EU, set to be its last for a while, held special significance.

"With this step, we are healing a Cold War wound and completing a process that began with German reunification. We are tearing down the last brick of the Berlin Wall," he said from Romania.

Steinmeier said Berlin planned to draft the "timeline and outline" of a bid to salvage the constitution but realised that a solution would not be implemented during its presidency.

Though Merkel would like to retain as much as possible of the original text, French and Dutch voters are unlikely to accept the same treaty they rejected in referenda some 18 months ago with mere cosmetic changes.

Beyond Europe, the chancellor has set her sights on "revitalizing" the quartet for peace in the Middle East grouping the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations.

She will fly to Washington on Thursday to enlist US President George W. Bush's support for the quartet and spell out her goals for the G8.

Merkel has said she will use the year-long presidency of the Group of Eight -- which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- to advance a gentler form of globalization.

This includes establishing more transparency on international financial markets, increasing investment in deserving African democracies and promoting climate protection.

Germany plans to rally the EU to a common stance on the successor to the Kyoto Protocol which runs out in 2012. It would like the bloc to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020.

German EU presidency website