EU seeks vision for next 50 years

On union's 50th anniversary, US diplomats say Europe was wrongly ignored after 9/11.

By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the March 23, 2007 edition

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BERLIN AND WASHINGTON - As leaders of the 27 European Union members gather in Berlin this Sunday for the 50th anniversary of the EU, much of the effort behind a highly anticipated "Berlin Declaration" is to make the postwar organization pertinent to ordinary Europeans – a record number of whom are skeptical of the Union, even while enjoying its benefits.

Five decades ago this Sunday, a new Europe formally emerged with the signing of the Treaties of Rome. It was a brave and visionary effort to transcend national boundaries and illiberal ideologies. With American help, Europe shaped a common market and sphere of values against the backdrop of Soviet communism, two cataclysmic wars, and Auschwitz.

Now, as the EU pauses to consider its foundational ideals, it's striving to make them relevant. Climate change has emerged as a key rallying point. In addition, the US seems to be placing renewed emphasis on the transatlantic relationship. In Washington, top US diplomats told the Monitor that a stronger working relationship with Europe is needed in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Kosovo, among others, and admitted that Europe had been wrongly ignored in the "strategic complications" after 9/11.

The EU's success in shaping peace, prosperity, and notions of international justice and human rights are today so taken for granted that it practically requires a half-century anniversary to mention it, experts say. After the cold war, most states wanted to join what is seen as a haven of wealth and security.

Yet the EU has struggled, often vainly, to capture the popular imagination of ordinary Europeans, who often think of Brussels as a massive bureaucracy run by distant elites interested only in measuring bananas and regulating figs. The need to make the EU seem "relevant" on the street is seen as crucial to its future success and development, argued World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy in the Financial Times (FT) this week. "Europe today lacks the necessary political energy," he wrote. "Public opinion is skeptical, political elites are fatigued."

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