Tag Archives: European Union

EU recognized by the CIA.

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Last week, on a visit to Germany, Henry Kissinger stated that Europe “now has a number”. Well, I’m not sure which one in particular he was referring to, or if the CIA’s decision to list the EU in its world fact book has anything to do with Kissinger’s realisation – but depending on the outcome of the Constitutional ratification process, the decision to include the EU at this point of time will either be judged prophetic, or unfortunate – or as another example of “divide et impera”, of supporting those in Europe who campaign against a “superstate” (whatever that may be). After all, it’s a “fact-book”, isn’t it? From the CIA World Fact Book “What’s New” section –

“…the European Union has been included as an “Other” entity at the end of the listing. The European Union continues to accrue more nation-like characteristics for itself and so a separate listing was deemed appropriate. A fuller explanation may be found under the European Union Preliminary statement.”

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What Margot Wallstr?m Didn’t Say

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European Commissioner For Communications (no pun) Margot Wallstr?m is in the news, not for what she said, but for what she didn’t say. The EU observer reports she excised part of a speech she had prepared for her visit to Terezin in the Czech Republic where she was scheduled to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp. The ‘offending passage’ hinted that rejecting a supranational Europe meant risking a new European holocaust:

“Yet there are those today who want to scrap the supranational idea. They want the European Union to go back to the old purely inter-governmental way of doing things. I say those people should come to Terezin and see where that old road leads”

This reference has with reason offended the sensibilities of many democratic opponents of the proposed EU constitution. But my problems with it go further. It is an insult to the memory of those very camp victims whose memory we are in these days so intent on commemorating.
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Better News on Agricultural Tarrifs

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For once something positive to report:

After months of deadlock, the Doha round of global trade talks has taken a big step forward, thanks largely to an abstruse but important deal over agricultural tariffs….On May 4th, negotiators from America, the European Union, Brazil, India and Australia hammered out a formula for converting specific tariffs on agricultural goods, such as 10 cents per pound in weight, into percentage (or so-called ad valorem) tariffs.

Measuring all tariffs as a percentage of the goods? value is a prerequisite for further progress in talks about reducing trade barriers for agricultural goods. Under the broad outline for the farm-trade talks agreed last summer, countries pledged to divide their tariff barriers into different tiers. Higher tariffs will be cut more than lower ones. Not surprisingly, those countries that protect their farmers most wanted a conversion formula that translated specific tariffs into lower percentages, as that would imply smaller cuts down the road. In the end, the deal was based on a compromise proposal made by the European Union.
Source: The Economist

Obviously this is a dense technical issue, but the good news is that the EU has moved to break the deadlock. The slightly ironic detail is that the meeting where the agreement was ironed-out was held in Paris with the French referendum campaign as a background. Still I suppose this puts the suggestions that current EU policy is being driven exclusively by the needs of obtaining a ‘yes’ vote in some sort of context.

Also, as the Economist notes there is plenty yet to do. In the first place all the details on agriculture have still to be worked out. And then there is the tricky question of services……………

The Sort Of News We Don’t Need

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The FT is running the following story about Barroso:

Jos? Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, will drop his supervision of antitrust cases affecting the shipping industry, shortly after it emerged he took a holiday on the luxury yacht of a Greek shipping tycoon….

the timing of Mr Barroso’s decision is likely to reignite the controversy over his summer holiday as a guest on a yacht belonging to Spiros Latsis, son of John Latsis, the Greek shipping magnate.

Are these people all so desparately lonely that they have nothing better to do with their time? I have simply one question: with all the money we pay our leaders, don’t they have sufficient resources to organise their own holidays?

French Referendum Poll Update

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Just a quick follow up on the state of play with opinion poll outcomes in France. Le Monde today reports that of four polls published yesterday two gave a majority for the ‘yes’ vote, whilst the other two suggested a significant decline in ‘no’ support (details in fold). Since the shift is partly among socialist voters, is this a ‘Jospin effect’? (The former PS Prime Minister went public on prime tv late last week with his support for the ‘yes’ campaign)

Whilst I’m posting, this article in the FT about tensions between Barroso and Chirac makes interesting reading. In particular since it suggests that the fairly modest celebrations of the enlargement anniversary I noted yesterday may be linked to a deliberate policy of not rocking the boat at a sensitive time.

Curious detail: the FT reports “Mr Chirac believes Mr Barroso has an infuriating ability to sound like a liberal when addressing a business audience, while peddling a more French-friendly vision of a ‘social Europe’ to trade unionists.”

Wouldn’t this be yet another case of people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

NB following a point in the comments section, can anyone bring us up to date with some info about the evolution of and background to the vote in the Netherlands?
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Triste Est Omne Animal

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Yesterday was the first anniversary of the entry of ten new states into the EU. It was an anniversary generally celebrated amidst a notable lack of champagne and fireworks. Perhaps we are living in more discrete and austere times. Nonetheless there have been articles here and there in the press, amongst them the one in the Economist which I allude to in the title.

The Economist quote actually comes from one of the founding fathers of modern medicine – the second century Greek physician Galen – and the full quote is “Triste est omne animal post coitum” (no prizes for guessing the use to which the Economist puts this idea in the context of the recent enlargement, although if any of our commentators feels moved to provide anecdotal testimony on the soundness of Galen’s original idea, then please don’t let me stand in your way).

The article is provocatively entitled “Now that we are all bundled inside, let’s shut the door“, and is a survey of all the various kinds of ambivalences and ambiguities which can now be found among the 25 member states about the enlargement process in general. An interesting if not profoundly novel assessment of the state of play. Perhaps the most surprising discovery for me was the level of tension which currently seems to exist along the Brussels/Bucharest axis.

Perhaps a more balanced assessment can be found in today’s EU observer. Unusually for me I find myself entirely in agreement with the sentiments expressed by European Commission President Jos? Manuel Barroso who is quoted as saying that the anniversary “is a happy event for all Europeans” calling the enlargement “a reunification of not only nations and peoples but also of cultures”.

French Referendum Still Up For Grabs

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On Friday I suggested (using an Economist article as my point of support) that the French referendum result was far from a foregone conclusion. Further evidence for this comes from a poll published in today’s Le Monde. For the first time in recent weeks we have evidence to support the possibility of a ‘yes’ vote: 52% say they are prepared to vote in favour.

The poll was conducted by TNS-Sofres and Unilog for Le Monde, RTL and LCI.The last time this poll was conducted (15-18 April) the ‘no’ vote registered 55%, so there is evidence for some sort of change. The shift reflects an increase in those who expressed a clear intention to vote (up to 63% of those interviewed from 58% in the previous round).

Now obviously one swallow doesn’t make a summer, and opinion polls obviously have notorious problems, but it does seem that something is moving and that in France at least the game is far from over.

We don’t have a Plan B.

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Because no one has one. Well, no one has a public plan about how to handle one or more rejections of the European consitution in upcoming national referenda. But as the French referendum is approaching and the numbers do not look too good for the “yes” camp, unofficial Plan Bs are suddenly everywhere, if only to scare the naysaying Gauls into becoming responsible citizens. I know it’s common knowledge by now, but let me repeat it once more – a French “non” would be the worst case, and have possibly nuclear consequences for the EU as we know it. So scaring the voters a little seems like a reasonable approach to me.

In this vein, Bettina Thalmeyer of the Munich based Center for Applied Policy Research has put together a list of possibilities for the day after (and has published a paper about it (in German)) – hoping that it will not be May 30 (the translation and slight modifications are mine, table in the extended).

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Latin: A solution to the EU’s language problems?

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Speaking of the Classics, I recently discovered to my shock and amazement that in Belgium, students still study Latin in secondary school. My Dutch teacher was talking about the structure of secondary school, and described how there is still a Latin/Classical Greek track, as well as a Latin/Math track that students almost have to take if they plan to go into medicine or any advanced humanities.

Even more shocking, she defended this practice, claiming that it was quite clear based on the kinds of essays and work students do in university which ones had studied Latin. She was troubled when I expressed doubt that there was a causal relationship between the two.

Is this commonplace in Europe? I mean, my high school offered Latin, but only because New Jersey required two years of language and some students had already flunked all three modern languages offered. (And because the Romanian woman who taught French and German figured she could teach Latin too, so they didn’t have to hire anyone.)
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Spring European Summit

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I often marvel at the absurdities of the debate around the EU’s economic agenda.

Take, for instance, this pithy summary of Sunday’s meeting from EurActiv:

The costs of German reunification will be counted as a mitigating circumstance in the reform of the EU Stability and Growth Pact, EU finance ministers have agreed.

Because, of course, nobody knew about German reunification when the Stability and Growth Pact was first adopted. In 1997.

And the ludicrous row over the services directive leaves me wondering if the EU is at all serious about extending the four freedoms to the new member states, let alone about the dying Lisbon Agenda.

Perhaps the heads of state and government will surprise me. But I suspect the biggest effect of the summit for me personally will be the increased traffic jams when I go home tonight and tomorrow.