German finance minister wants new EU treaty

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has called for revising the European Union treaty to give Brussels a greater say in financial and economic matters, Bild newspaper reported Friday. Such changes are needed because of the current eurozone crisis "even though we know how difficult treaty negotiations can be," he reportedly told a closed meeting of fellow Christian Union members of parliament on Thursday. The Lisbon treaty, which came into force in 2009, took years to negotiate and required a number of referendums in several member countries. In March, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she too wanted to see changes to the bloc's treaties to better deal with future financial crises. "I will push for necessary treaty changes so that we can act sooner and more effectively when things go wrong, including with targeted sanctions," Merkel told parliament. "Europe must learn the right lessons for the future ... We have seen that the instruments of the eurozone as they currently stand are insufficient," Merkel said.