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Friday, December 15, 2006

The Future of European Union

Today is the final day a summit of the leaders of EU in Brussels. Many issues were debated and the most important ones were the enlargement of EU, the reform of EU and EU constitution. Of course the most mediatic topic was the Turkey's application. It was decided to slowdown this process. To the others aspiring members the message was dubious: "We understand the need to combine the strategic vision of enlargement with the capacity of integration of the European Union" said Jose Manuel Barroso, Commission President (Taken from here)

In my opinion this constant indecision about the enlargement of EU is affecting all the processes inside the EU. In the past 5 years the main focus was in integrating new countries in the Union and we totally abandon the reinforcement of the internal relations and institutions. There were "injuries" that didn't heal and there were no effort in doing that.

There is still no common voice in foreigner affairs (the Iraqi crisis was a good image of that) and most of the population of the countries inside the Union still have a negative image of the politics of the Union (the politicians are guilty for this because they used the excuse of EU rules to implement unpopular politics).

We need to have clearer goals for the Union, so for me the future of this Union passes through this definition before more countries enter it.

I am a strong Federalist supporter, can this be future?
Well, I hope so!

3 comments:

E. said...

Stran, I utterly agree with you. Unfortunately, despite the passing years, the EU is still an economical union rather than a political one. There is still no constitution, no army and more importantly a firm foothold in world politics.

Billy Coconut said...

The Europeans have failed to come up with a clear and functional definition of Europe -- so of course, they are all bogged down over who to admit or not.

The nations of Europe do not share a common interest on any issue, financial or diplomatic -- there will therefore never be a common European foreign policy.

Stran said...

I don't agree with you, philippe. I think that we share common interest on many issues, financial or diplomatic. Otherwise we would no longer exist. One of the problems is that for the major population, EU means tought measures.
I think if you travel along the EU countries you can find many diferences but also many simmilarities, and in terms of values we are more united than disunited.