Supporters of closer European integration used the 50th anniversary of the EU on Saturday to press for a swift overhaul of the bloc that would prepare it for 21st century challenges such as terrorism and climate change.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting a weekend summit she hopes will generate new momentum for European unity and she said the EU's 490 million citizens urgently needed clarity about where the enlarged 27-nation bloc was headed.
"Our goal is show our citizens how to create a revitalised, effective European Union before the next European parliamentary elections in 2009," Merkel said in her weekly Internet broadcast. "The people in Europe have a right to know this." European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the bloc's post-war peace and prosperity an example for the world but said the EU was at a crossroads.
"In Europe, 2007 is the year when the past and the future meet," Barroso said at a gala concert in Brussels. "Building on our great past, we must reaffirm that the Union is the best answer to 21st challenges such as globalisation, sustainable economic growth and competitiveness, political solidarity, energy supply, climate change, and security."