EU seeks vision for next 50 years
On union's 50th anniversary, US diplomats say Europe was wrongly ignored after 9/11.
from the March 23, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
The Berlin Declaration, hashed out for months, will build on the EU's decision this spring to take the global lead in battling climate change, and it will provide a "road map," as a foreign ministry source in Berlin put it, for reinvigorating the idea of Europe. The issue is a sensitive one. In a 2005 referendum, French and Dutch voters said "No" to the idea of a common European constitution.
Though the Berlin Declaration will not mention the concept of a constitution, the idea of a road map is clearly seen as a way to move toward the kinds of common security and foreign policies, more- equitable and clear decisionmaking in a group now bursting with 27 members, and other elements found in constitutions.
The 50th anniversary of what was then a six-nation union called the European Economic Community is seen by many diplomats as a chance to pause and revisit the original concepts of the EU. In the past months, the Berlin Declaration itself has been a document in search of a more relevant message. The initial idea was to emphasize something called the Lisbon Declaration that spelled out state responsibility in the EU – though France and Holland were missing from the pack. Then the emphasis shifted to energy and security, following the threat of Russian gas cutoffs in early January. Finally, after the bold move in Paris by EU states to battle climate change, the EU found its common touch issue.
"Politicians in Europe are looking for the winning formula. They want to know how to talk to the people about a new vision," argues Heinrich Kreft, senior foreign policy adviser to the Christian Democratic party in Berlin. "People first have to know what Europe is.... The idea has been lost ... It sounds too abstract. It was easier and more successful to build against the Soviet bloc, than to define it positively."
While the EU's precursor was focused on economics, it also introduced a new concept of identity. "We unite people, not just states," argued one founder, Jean Monnet of France.
But today, Europeans show deep ambivalence about such unity. In FT/Harris polls this week in the five largest European states, some 44 percent said their country had not improved since joining the EU. But only 22 percent felt life would be better if their country left the EU.
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