Wolfgang Schauble, a member of the German Christian Democratic Union party and President of the Bundestag, took a dim view of Social Democrats leader Martin Schulz’s call to transform the EU into a new entity with its own constitution, claiming that Europe requires a different approach.
"To say that one wants to create a United States of Europe within five years and that those states that don't go along will be thrown out seems a bit shortsighted, to put it politely," Schauble said, according to DW.
"They are not geared toward an institutional restructuring of the EU but are rather an attempt to move forward without having to change the EU treaty," he remarked.
During an SDP convention on December 7, Schulz called for transforming the EU into a "United States of Europe" by 2025 and adopting a constitution for the new entity.
The results of a YouGov poll that were published earlier this week revealed that 30 percent of Germans and 28 percent of French support the idea, while 33 percent and 26 percent, respectively, disagree; the respondents in other European countries, such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and, of course, the United Kingdom, largely opposed this proposal.
