Europe embraces obfuscation

"Many things happened at the summit. But perhaps the most important was that the EU finally abandoned the idea that it wants ordinary Europeans to understand what it is doing", writes columnist Gideon Rachman. "European leaders have gone through the constitution painstakingly replacing anything that is too clear with something more obscure. ... In producing a document that is stuffed with nonsense like this, the EU is reverting to its true nature. Like most of the novels of Nabokov, EU treaties have never been widely read; but they have nevertheless attracted a reputation for obscurity and immorality, alongside a faint whiff of perversion. EU officials found this upsetting - and the constitution was a brief, disastrous effort to put things to rights. This weekend marked the end of the EU's experiment with transparency and popularity. Like Nabokov, the Union will once again inspire interest only among a small band of specialists, devotees and deviants."

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