For the cure, follow the money
The word that best defines Europe's current political predicament is "crisis." Over the last month, every major item on the European Union agenda has been put on hold, from the constitutional treaty to the 2007-2013 budget to further enlargement. But most evolutionary processes, especially in politics, proceed by fits and starts. And as Tony Blair is fond of saying these days, in every crisis there is an opportunity.
The last 20 years have indeed been a period of uninterrupted success for Europe. Who remembers the "Eurosclerosis" of the mid-80s? Think of what has happened since - the internal market, German reunification, the euro, the doubling of EU member states, the dispatch of EU-led peacekeeping forces to Africa and the Balkans.If there is a single obsession in Europe's economic soul-searching, it is the United States. Leaf through any of the hundreds of economic analyses produced each year by the European Commission and you'll inevitably find comparisons between the two sides of the Atlantic: how Europe is falling behind the United States in income and productivity, in the use of information and computer technologies, in research and development, innovation, employment, etc. Can Europe make it? It must, because its political future now hangs on the eventual success of the Lisbon strategy in turning around the economy. Only economic growth and the steady creation of jobs can revive public trust in the European Union and make further enlargement acceptable.
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