When EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso visited the German capital on Wednesday, Angela Merkel took the opportunity to announce an ambitious plan. During her tenure as the European Union's next president in the first half of 2007, the German chancellor wants to revive the ratification of the EU constitution, a process that came to an abrupt halt when the initial draft was rejected by popular referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005. "We need a constitution before the next European elections," Merkel declared in Berlin on Wednesday.

Merkel's aim is especially bold given the ongoing skepticism with which the EU is viewed in Europe. The 25-nation group has been accused of lacking transparency and many on the continent are uncomfortable with the EU's rapid growth. Ten new members were added in 2004 and two more, Romania and Bulgaria, are set to join on Jan. 1, 2007. Ongoing accession talks with Turkey are likewise making many in Europe nervous.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung acknowledges on Thursday that whenever one of the "big three" member states (Germany, France, and Britain) takes over the EU presidency, expectations become greater that progress will be made. Merkel, the center-left paper argues, has set the bar "extremely high" for herself with her promise to revive the constitution, which was knocked into "an artificial coma" following its spring, 2005 rejection in both France and Holland. The paper is concerned that Merkel may be unable to live up to her own expectations, given "the danger that this topic could be thrown to the hyenas of the election campaigns" in France and Holland during Merkel's EU-tenure in 2007. The paper also cites Merkel's own dual loyalty -- to her conservative Christian Democratic party on the one hand and her Social Democratic coalition partners on the other -- as a potential source of failure. Ultimately, the paper says, "it doesn't much matter whether a Finn or a German wields the scepter … the external circumstances … are the deciding factor: elections, the state of reforms, and the economic situation of the member states."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung is equally skeptical of Merkel's ambitious endeavor to bring the EU constitution back from the dead. The daily paper says the ratification process has been stuck in "a state of utter helplessness" since it was struck down by the French and Dutch populace. "And Angela Merkel will not be able to change this situation. She can only beg and plead, but not decide," the paper writes. Instead, the daily expects the issue will be decided during the second half of 2008, "under the French EU presidency of all things."

In her attempt to redress the problems that caused the EU constitution to fail in 2005, Angela Merkel will also have to address concerns that the Brussels bureaucracy may be overstepping its mandate. Günter Verheugen, one of five vice presidents of the European Commission, was the first to go public with this accusation last week. This Thursday, the business daily Handelsblatt picked up on the theme. The paper sympathizes with Verheugen's frustration over certain power-hungry bureaucrats within the commission. The paper says they sometimes come across as "egomaniacal and arrogant, almighty and incorrigible," despite their hierarchical subordination to appointed commissioners such as Verheugen. But in the end, Verheugen should have handled the situation better, says the paper. "To outside observers, he conveys the impression of a frustrated, clearly overwhelmed industrial commissioner who does not have a firm grip on his own administration." After all, "an EU pro such as Günter Verheugen should be capable of settling such conflicts internally. That is, after all, what the other commissioners are doing."

-- Alex Bakst, 3:30 p.m. CET

Whose Sanctions Are They Anyway?

What to do about North Korea? Now that the country has defied the international community, and its close ally China, by reportedly testing a nuclear weapon, the United Nations is struggling to formulate an appropriate response.

Japan is hoping for a harsh set of sanctions including a prohibition on North Korean ships and planes from travelling to any other country. China is looking for a softer approach. And the United States is somewhere in the middle. With a UN General Assembly set to address the issue on Friday, time is of the essence.

The Financial Times Deutschland on Friday likens a diplomatic ultimatum, such as the one issued prior to North Korea's reported nuclear test, to "the atomic bomb of international diplomacy: Those who threaten it must also be prepared to use it when the enemy remains steadfast." Concerning North Korea, "the international community has exhausted its diplomatic arsenal" and must now act decisively. Since the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is not concerned with the well-being of his own populace, the business paper argues, harsher sanctions will not prompt him to change his course. The sanctions are thus significant primarily for the UN. "If the international community abstains from sanctions, it will have made a fool of itself. Otherwise, it will have shown unity and consistency, even if it is primarily symbolic."

The conservative daily Die Welt seeks to explain why the war in Iraq was justified, while military action in North Korea is not. US President George W. Bush formed a "coalition of the willing" to topple the Iraqi regime in response to "Saddam's triple provocation –- breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, military aggression, and bending the rules of the subsequent ceasefire." In contrast to Saddam and also to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is also believed to be working on a nuclear weapon, "Kim Jong Il does not entertain aggressive ambitions that go beyond South Korea." Furthermore, the paper says, the Korean ceasefire agreement regulates the demilitarized zone between the North and the South, but "contains no provisions for military and foreign policy." Thus, even though "the clock is ticking" for Kim Jong Il's regime, the time has not yet come for military intervention in North Korea. "If one takes the authority of the UN seriously," the paper concludes, then Bush "is on the right course."

Left-leaning Die Tageszeitung elucidates another aspect of the American president's North Korea policy. The Bush administration's tough line on the North Korean nuclear threat "could help the US government win back at least part of the electoral support it lost because of its disastrous Iraq policy," the paper writes, but "only if the conflict with Pyongyang continues to dominate the media until November 7," the day of the midterm elections for the US Congress. Republicans in Congress are lagging behind their Democratic opposition in the polls according to four separate surveys conducted shortly before North Korea's nuclear test on Monday.