Prodi, Merkel vow to 'relaunch Europe'

(ROME) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi threw his weight behind efforts to "relaunch Europe" during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of celebrations for the 50 years since the founding Treaty of Rome.

"I want to hail the great efforts by Germany to relaunch Europe, whose way forward was interrupted by the two votes against the constitution," he said, referring to failed referendums in France and The Netherlands on the bloc's basic law in 2005.

Prodi, who was European Commission president from 1999 to 2004, also said both Italy and Germany wanted to go into the next EU elections in 2009 with "new strengthened institutions."

"I want to thank Romano Prodi with all my heart for the support he gives us," said Merkel, who has made the renewal of the EU constitution among her top priorities as the EU's current rotating president.

She will host the heads of state and government of the 27 EU member states as they gather in Berlin on Saturday and Sunday to mark the treaty's 50th anniversary and to adopt a "Berlin Declaration" setting out the way forward for the bloc.

A major debate is planned on the subject in May or June after next month's French presidential elections.

Prodi said earlier that the time had come to stop mourning the 2005 French and Dutch rejections of the EU constitution and look to the EU's future.

Europe "urgently needs new rules of functioning, to be put in place if possible before the elections of 2009," Prodi told a news conference unveiling the programme of events around the Treaty of Rome anniversary celebrations.