St. Paul Pioneer Press: Rift over EU constitution highly exaggerated

St. Paul Pioneer PressRift over EU constitution highly exagerated

Reports of the death of the European Union are highly exaggerated. Yes, in the past week strong majorities in both France and the Netherlands voted to reject the proposed EU constitution. Whatever this means politically, it will have surprisingly little effect on the global economy in the near term. That's because no matter where the EU ends up on several fundamental questions it faces, the economic benefits Europe derives from five decades of increasing economic integration will not disappear. One immediate effect of last week's votes – the weakening of the euro against the dollar – is bad news for Minnesota farmers and medical technology firms, but will give a boost to European manufacturers. But overall the EURO is starting to stabilize again.