December 4, 2003
A GLORIFIED NAFTA:
Europe's Vision of Unity Meets Headwinds (RICHARD BERNSTEIN, 12/03/03, NY Times)
[T]he European Union, which started with just six countries, will become a 25-member club bringing most of the former East Bloc states, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Hungary, into its democratic, free-trade embrace. Still, as the enlargement approaches, the group has been enmeshed in a host of arguments, small and large, stemming from one common root, experts say."The basic, central conflict has to do with the distribution of power between the big and the small states," said William Drozdiak, director of the Trans-Atlantic Center of the German Marshall Fund, a research organization.
"The danger is that what you'll end up with after enlargement is a glorified customs union," he added. "All the pretense of a common European defense and security policy would fall apart, and you'll see more and more the big countries just getting together to create coalitions of the willing to do things on their own. That's where we're heading."
Why be concerned? That's the best possible option. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2003 8:31 AM
Watch out! Its gonna blow!
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at December 4, 2003 3:05 PMLast month I discussed briefly the Swedish refendum on the Euro with a Swedish diplomatic couple. They were angry, devastated and embarassed at their countrymen's foolishness(an embarassed Swede is a rare bird). Last week I asked a Dutch woman on a posting here about France and Germany getting away with fiscal murder. She seemed only mildly perturbed, but when we shifted to the UK, she went almost dreamy and started repeating "They must join eventually, they just must...".
It seems the elites of Europe simply cannot countenance any change of direction without becoming a little unhinged. The EU is a religion.
Posted by: Peter B at December 4, 2003 4:41 PM