E.U.’s Big 3 Launch Berlin Summit

Hosting the talks, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said their goal was to help make Europe "the most competitive region in the world," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Flanked at the round table by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, he said they wanted to achieve common solutions for common problems "in order to give a new impetus to Europe".

"That is the goal — nothing more, nothing less," he went on, defending the talks against critics as "useful" and "a helpful contribution toward a better functioning, expanded Europe".

Blair said the three realized they still had "a long way to go" to realize the ambitious objectives of the European Union ‘s summit in Lisbon in 2000, which first set the goal of making the bloc the world’s most competitive region by 2010.

High-Level Commissioner

The three leaders also issued a joint call for the appointment of a high-level European commissioner charged exclusively with pushing through economic reforms.

They said their proposed European Commission vice president would not only coordinate but also intervene in any area that affected the bloc’s economy.

The proposal is contained in a letter to the Irish E.U. presidency and European Commission chief Romano Prodi, adopted at a three-way summit here by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.

In the proposal, the leaders say the official, dubbed a “super-commissioner” by the press, would be charged with advancing the ambitious targets of the European Union summit in Lisbon in 2002, which first set the goal of transforming the bloc into the world’s most competitive region within a decade.

“As a means of helping achieve our goals on growth, we call for the appointment of a Vice-President of the Commission to focus exclusively on economic reform,” they say.

“This person would push ahead with the Lisbon Agenda and coordinate the work of Commissioners whose portfolios are particularly important for its realization.

Reports here have suggested that would include areas ranging from industry, competition and the internal market to research and the environment.

In the letter, the leaders also outlined a list of problems hampering European economic growth, including a failure to maximize the benefits of research, barriers to realizing entrepreneurial potential and chronic unemployment.

“A more innovative and employment-intensive economy will help preserve our social protection systems for future generations,” they wrote.

“At the same time these systems need comprehensive reform to guarantee their long-term affordability, given the demographic trend,” they added.

Cool Response

However, the idea has already met with a cool response in Brussels where a spokesman for Prodi said equality between commissioners would remain “a leading principle”.

The three leaders’ meeting was met with skepticism in the continent, with some European leaders fearing the three are trying to dominate an expanded European Union.

Italy’s Europe Minister, Rocco Buttiglione, has repeated the view of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that the E.U. does not need such a directorate to run its affairs.

“Nobody in Europe is ready to be a second-class citizen. Europe is made up of 25 countries, not of three,” Buttiglione told the BBC.

Before the talks started, the three countries had been keen to reject fears that the three leaders wanted to set up a small body within the E.U. to take control.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it made sense for the three biggest economies to work “collaboratively” on matters of common interest.

“We cannot seek to impose our will on the rest of Europe,” he was quoted by the BBC News Online as saying.

“But if we can reach a common stand, it is more likely that it will be shared across Europe,” Straw said.

Straw also said he had spoken to his counterparts in Italy, Spain and Poland over the past two days to reassure them about the purpose of the talks in Berlin.

The leaders of Denmark, Luxembourg and Netherlands have said they were not concerned, the BBC News Online said.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told a German radio station that it would be a “useful meeting”.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said it was "natural for the big countries to get together”.