European Union president Germany will set the bloc a two-year deadline to modernise its institutions when leaders from 27 member states gather this weekend in Berlin to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary.
The "Berlin Declaration", to be presented in the German capital on Sunday, vows to give the bloc a "renewed common basis" by 2009 - wording Berlin hopes will underscore the EU's commitment to overhaul its structures with a new constitution.
But the two-page document, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters before its formal unveiling, makes no specific mention of a new treaty and avoids buzzwords like "enlargement", reflecting deep divisions in the bloc on how to move forward half a century after the founding Treaty of Rome.
In a sign of those divisions, German officials said Chancellor Angela Merkel had been forced to call sceptical Czech leaders on Friday morning to ensure they supported the text, which was composed after months of consultations.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus described the declaration as "Orwellian eurospeak" in a BBC interview broadcast on Friday, but both he and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek agreed not to stand in its way after telephone conversations with Merkel.
Merkel, who holds the rotating six-month EU presidency, aims to use the largely ceremonial summit in Berlin to generate new momentum for European unity after French and Dutch rejections of a previous charter in 2005 plunged the bloc into uncertainty.
Festivities are being staged around Europe, including two days of street parties and open night-clubs in a once-divided German capital that was at the heart of the Cold War. Merkel has vowed to present an EU summit in June with a "road map" for reviving the constitution and wants members to ratify a new treaty before 2009 European parliamentary polls.
But the advent of eurosceptic governments in Prague and Warsaw, as well as persistent public opposition in Britain, the Netherlands and France, means efforts to launch new treaty negotiations will be fraught with difficulty. As celebrations got under way, Italian Prime Minister and former European Commission President Romano Prodi warned in a speech to the Italian Senate that the EU could still fail.
"Europe's citizens have been waiting with bated breath for almost two years because after the French and Dutch rejection, they realised that the European project has not yet reached the point of no return, and that Europe could still fail," he said.
"Through these celebrations we must reassure them, and show that this is not the case, and that we are determined to complete the greatest experiment of peace, democracy and prosperity of the contemporary world," Prodi added.
The Czech Republic opposes any deadline for a new treaty and the Poles want to reopen a reform of the voting system that the vast majority of other member states support.
Looming French elections mean Germany will not know until a month before the crucial June EU summit who its negotiating partner is in one of Europe's most important capitals. The challenge will test Merkel's growing stature as Europe's pivotal deal-maker, forged by a December 2005 compromise on the bloc's long-term budget and an agreement this month on ambitious targets to fight climate change with a green energy policy.
Merkel, 52, lobbied for her cause in an article to appear in the Saturday edition of Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper, saying the bloc's existing structures, agreed when the EU comprised just 15 nations, were inadequate.
"We need to point our institutions in a new direction if Europe is to shape globalisation to our values, be a climate change leader, ensure security and stability in the world and be a growth region with a sense of social responsibility," Merkel said in comments provided to Reuters before publication.
"The constitutional treaty stands for all of this." The treaty would give the bloc a long-term president and foreign minister, a slimmed-down executive Commission, a simpler and more democratic decision-making system and more say for the European and national parliaments.
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