euro|topics - The EU is seeking a future for itself

Main focus of Thursday, June 21, 2007

The EU is seeking a future for itself

The European summit beginning in Brussels this Thursday, June 21st, will mainly focus on a new European treaty intended to replace the draft Constitution. The European press notes that positions are very divergent among the 27 countries, but hopes that the European summit will allow participants to reach an agreement.

Corriere della Sera - Italy

The Italian journalist and writer Beppe Severigni calls on History to defend the European project. "The future of the European Union will be at stake over the next few hours. We had heard and read about it: the German revolving presidency was determined to take apart the Constitution, a text that no longer carries that name. Despite being approved by eighteen countries, it was abandoned because of the French and Dutch referendums in 2005. Today there is nothing but talk about a new mini-treaty aimed at giving the new Europe of 27 countries a set of new rules, seeing as the current ones don't work anymore ... . [As is recalled by the Hungarian writer Imre Kertész], Europe was born out of an historic decision: the decision of Athens to oppose the Persians. Do we really have to wait for the Persians to come back to understand that it is good, right and necessary to stay together?" (21/06/2007)

ABC - Spain

In its editorial, the daily regrets the dropping of the initial Constitution, but nonetheless remains optimistic about the future of the EU. "The European Union has shown that a series of political crises hasn't handicapped it, quite the contrary, and there is no reason to assume that in this case the treacherous French 'no' vote against the Constitution will have a negative effect on the future of the European project. ... Europe is being built in a dynamic process and although things seem at the moment as if we were in the turmoil of indigestion after the last enlargement, there is no doubt about the actual idea of Europe. The EU continues to be the most ambitious project that we have and, through all its crises, the one clear fact is that no one has asked to leave it." (21/06/2007)

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

According to Adam Krzeminski, the dispute over the EU Constitution is mainly about "the practical implementation of European solidarity. And it is precisely this solidarity which the Kaczynski brothers' advisors argue Poland is being denied. The more powerful members form an inner circle and look on silently, while less powerful states are snubbed. Poland has not forgotten Chirac's arrogant speech of 2003, in which he said the Poles had missed a good opportunity to remain silent, nor has it forgotten Schröder's indifference when his unsullied democracy-loving chum in Moscow invited him and the French President, but neither a Polish nor a Lithuanian representative (the two countries that are Russia's direct neighbours) to attend Kaliningrad 750th anniversary celebrations. Are we being too unforgiving?... In the confrontation with restorative tendencies in Russia, Poland feels it has been let down by the EU. Putin castigated Poland for the role it played (on the EU's behalf!) during the 2004 revolution in Ukraine, but the EU took no notice." (21/06/2007)

The Times - United Kingdom

Camilla Cavendish thinks the British should learn from the Poles' attitude to the EU. "They come fresh to the labyrinthine process of EU negotiations with a firmer grasp of their national interest than the current occupant of 10 Downing Street. Their reluctance to let Germany grant itself significantly greater voting power makes it Warsaw 1, Berlin 0, as today's EU summit kicks off. Intransigent? Yes. Unacceptable? No. ... On Tuesday, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, told Poland that it risked losing money and support if it blocked a deal to reform the EU's institutions. What, for exercising its democratic right to object? That is blackmail. ... In Britain ... those whom we elect as temporary holders of political office blithely continue to hand power permanently to unelected institutions. Each step hands power to the European Court of Justice, which seizes every opportunity to expand its domain, including slowly eroding national vetoes on tax." (21/06/2007)

» To the complete press review of Thursday, June 21, 2007

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