The only news about the Constitution that has come out of the summit of the Twenty-five member states (going on in Brussels until the early afternoon) concerns the will to sign "a statement to re-launch the integration process explains the Austrian Chancellor Schüssel and to reassert the values and ambitions of the EU". Such statement should see the light of day in March 2007, during the extraordinary meeting that Germany (which will be president on duty of the EU in the first six months of next year) is going to hold in Berlin to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaties that established the European Community. Among the factual commitments that the EU is going to take on under the next six-months chairmanships of Finland and Germany, the most outstanding ones, explained Schüssel, are "sustainable development, security, the EU’s ability to respond to crises and natural catastrophes", energy and migration issues. During the summit and the bilateral meetings between the political leaders, frequent discussions have been held about the EU’s "ability to take up" any new member state. In this respect, both the president of the EU Commission José Manuel Barroso and the president of the EU Parliament Josep Borrell insisted that the Constitution must be urgently implemented as it is "a prerequisite to allow such a wide EU to move on along its path to peace and development".
