Europe: A New Superpower on the Rise - by Melvin Rhodes

This year is going to be a test year for the post–Lisbon Treaty European Union. What lies ahead? An article in the British magazine The Economist, in its year-end special publication The World in 2010, states: "The fear of irrelevancy will haunt European leaders in 2010. They devised a new rule book, the Lisbon treaty, to come into force in 2010 and give their union the political heft to match its might as a trading and regulatory power. Its first year will reveal whether the design really does the job" (David Rennie, "More Than a Museum?").

The Dec. 24, 2009, issue of the Canadian newspaper Ottawa Citizen included an article titled "The Decline of America" by Karl Moore and David Lewis. It concluded with the following remarkable assessment of the near future: "In spite of all the arguments of the Euroskeptics, the European Union has transformed itself into a unique global superstate. Europe now has a president, a foreign minister, a common currency, a passport, a defence industry, a supersonic fighter, and an international role in peacekeeping.

For more: Europe: A New Superpower on the Rise > The Good News: March/April 2010