EU train off the rails as economic pressure grows
For those in Europe still wedded to the metaphor of the EU as a speeding train leaving only the idle and stupid stranded at the station, these are dark days. There’s an EU Constitution train, except it’s off the rails. The train sped on, so to speak, but passengers in two compartments mutinied. Next month sees an EU summit dominated by attempts to get the Constitution train “back on track”. Only there’s no fuel. In the compartment marked ‘Italy’ the doors have swung loose and the wheels have fallen off. On the track marked prosperity there are buckled rails and huge obstructions. It’s not just the train that’s broken. The line is going nowhere.
Train analogies have ruined our understanding of the whole “Europe” game for decades. But still they persist. One year after the emphatic No votes to the Constitution in France and the Netherlands, the “pause for reflection” has turned out to be more pause than reflection. Thus, EU Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen, who declared last week that “if anyone is able to set the derailed train back on tracks [sic] then it’s the Germans”. His call followed remarks by that aristocrat of the train metaphor, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. He declared that the French should vote again on the EU Constitution. He argued, “It is not France that has said no. It is 55% of the French people – 45% of the French people said yes.” But that’s still No, isn’t it? Well, er, no. He insisted in a newspaper interview that there was now enough support in the EU for the Constitution and that all that needs to be agreed is how it should be implemented.
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