The most wildly breaking news is the rolling votes for the EU constitutional referendum. Tommorrow, the Netherlands will conduct their own vote, fresh after yesterdays' French "non". The ramifications for this are hard to estimate with some saying no big deal to others predicting the worst.
Consider this interesting article from the Times Online.UK convincingly portrays a face off between Chirac and Blair:
TONY BLAIR is preparing to battle with President Chirac of France over Europe?s political direction for the coming decades.Note: "Liberalism" in the EU means free(er) markets... (towards capitalism).The chaos in Brussels caused by France?s unexpectedly emphatic rejection of the European constitution has put Mr Blair, who takes up the EU presidency in July, in a powerful position to impose his vision of the future shape of the Union.
...The Prime Minister called for a ?time of reflection?, and said that French voters ? many of whom want more social protection from Europe ? had raised serious questions about the future of the EU.
Taking a break from his Italian holiday, he said: ?The question that is being debated by the people of Europe is how do you, in this era of globalisation, make our economies strong and competitive?? The political vacuum has prompted a battle for the ?heart of the Union?, with Mr Blair keen to push more liberal economic policies, rather than French-style social protection with a large welfare state.
...Marco Incerti, of the Centre for European Policy Studies, which is funded by the Euro-pean Commission, said: ?There will be a fight for the heart of Europe.?
President Chirac is expected to push hard to reassert his political authority. Sources close to the French President have given warning that he will be ?more difficult, less co-operative and less European-minded than before?. One said: ?The French Government will interpret ?no? as against being European-minded and reasonable on things like the budget.?
Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, which is close to Mr Blair, said: ?The British presidency will be a very difficult act to pull off well. France?s ability to be bloody-minded is great.?
EU leaders will try to resolve the crisis at a Brussels summit next month, but if, as expected, they fail, it will fall to the Prime Minister to find a way out of the impasse.
As president, Britain will chair almost all negotiations between EU ministers, with the right to propose and withdraw initiatives, putting it in a powerful position to resolve Europe?s worst crisis for 50 years.
Mr Blair has made economic reform the top priority of his presidency, hoping to make labour markets more flexible in order to tackle record unemployment and sluggish growth across the continent. However, he is now likely to face challenges from President Chirac, who recently called economic ultra-liberalism the ?new communism of our age?.
A few observations:
-The process of inaugurating the EU seems to be a top down affair. I hoped that the creation of the constitution would have been a broad debate, but alas. The EU constitution seems to reflect this in a bloated and unmanageable document that came out of nowhere, a document which paradoxically seems overly concerned with management rather than... vision. It reads like some terrible product of a faculty meeting from hell. One consequence is that a lot of Europeans don't care... at least that is what I thought when we watched the Spanish vote recently.
-Installing the Euro currency system before establishing a constitution is like inserting foundations after building a house. It's pretty tricky but the good news is that it can be done... to houses that is.
-I recall many articles I read when I used to subscribe to Foreign Affairs long ago that dwelt with the need for Europe to reengineer their social system so that it can live and prosper beside the free market economies around the world. Some say that it can't be done, others hesitate to suggest how it can be pulled off. Maybe Blair can do it.
Personally, I wouldn't want Europe to transmogorify itself into the USA economic model. It is not possible anyway. There are deeply held and important fraternal values that need to be preserved, grown, expressed and salvaged. Trouble begins when it becomes a face off between antagonistic aspects. Is this neccessary? There is no need for conflict between systems that should instead be complimentary. After all, underneath this polarity lies a foundational conception about human freedom... no?
?No?
Posted by Dennis at May 31, 2005 5:06 PM
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