Khaleej Times Online: End of EU Dream (or just a wake-up call) ?

Khaleej Times OnlineEnd of EU Dream (or just a wake-up call)?

The bitter war of words between Britain and France while highlighting the dangerous schism between the traditional rivals and neighbours shocked the new, poor entrants to the club who offered to cut their own EU income to resolve the budget issue.

While Germany happens to be the biggest contributor to EU (7.7 per cent) and may be justified in asking Britain to reconsider its rebate, France’s opposition to UK rebate is intriguing. The French contribution to the EU budget is lower (2 per cent) than UK’s share of 2.8 per cent.

The Brussels summit was expected to not only finalise the EU budget for the period of 2007-13 but also take on the serious question marks hanging over the EU constitution. The meeting, however, failed to address either of the two crucial issues. The union has effectively decided to put the imponderables threatening the EU unity on the proverbial backburner.

However, that cannot drive away the demons haunting the world’s largest economic and political bloc. Of course, the club will continue to function normally for now and there’s no immediate threat to the euro will continue as common European currency.

The immediate yet invisible fallout would be the erosion of EU standing as a world player that has sought to counter-balance America’s role in a unipolar world in post Soviet Union years. In the Middle East, in particular, EU played a positive and harmonising role by backing the Palestinians in response to US support for Israel. The EU continues to be the biggest donor of aid to the oppressed people in Occupied Territories.