Europe twitches out of europaralysis
One year on from the seismic shock of the French and Dutch rejection of its constitution, the European Union still does not look ready to emerge from the political underground. At their summit yesterday and today in Brussels, EU leaders are expected to kick for touch and extend for another year their "pause for reflection" on the Union's future. "If everything goes well," a diplomat preparing the summit observed to Reuters, "no one will ever notice this summit happened."
Some welcome leadership changes have taken place. More are in prospect, in the UK and in France, where reform ideas are starting to get a hearing. Abroad, the EU has started to demonstrate cohesion, transatlantic relations have improved, and Russia's veiled threats to EU energy security have usefully pushed Europeans together. After much bluster, moreover, the US is backing European diplomacy with Iran as the only plausible way forward.
The summit is not the whole picture. The EU has plenty to offer its citizens. Its leaders are just no good at selling it.
No comments:
Post a Comment