in july 1989 he published, with his colleague norbert j. prill, a much-debated concept for a multi-speed europe which was based on the idea that the european community, considering the approaching end of the cold war, should be prepared to include emerging new democracies from eastern europe and neutral countries such as austria, finland and sweden; mertes and prill also pleaded for a stronger association of israel and turkey with the ec. during the 1990s timothy garton ash, michael mertes and dominique moïsi wrote several „trilateral“ (british-german-french) pleas in favour of a combined eastward entlargement and institutional modernisation of the eu.