Strike two for the EU
Three weeks after the collapse of the European Union’s growth and stability pact, it looks like the proposed EU consitution is dead on arrival. From the Washington Post: Negotiations on a new European constitution collapsed in acrimony Saturday, with the 25 current and future members of the European Union failing to find a formula to ...
Three weeks after the collapse of the European Union's growth and stability pact, it looks like the proposed EU consitution is dead on arrival. From the Washington Post:
Three weeks after the collapse of the European Union’s growth and stability pact, it looks like the proposed EU consitution is dead on arrival. From the Washington Post:
Negotiations on a new European constitution collapsed in acrimony Saturday, with the 25 current and future members of the European Union failing to find a formula to satisfy medium-size countries worried that their voices and votes would be swamped by larger countries in an expanded union. The failure left the EU facing one of the most critical crises of its history and could formalize an already visible split in the organization. Diplomats said several of the founding EU members, including France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, could soon issue a statement saying they were prepared to proceed on their own fast track, with deeper integration and shared policies. French President Jacques Chirac raised the idea of a two-speed Europe immediately after the talks failed. He said a smaller “pioneer group” could go forward on areas of common agreement. “It would be a motor that would set an example,” Chirac said. “It will allow Europe to go faster, better.” He did not specify policy areas where the core group might move forward. EU leaders, normally given to diplomatic language and positive “spin,” did not try to mask their failure. “It has not been possible to reach agreement on all points,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The meeting could have continued, Blair said, but “there’s no point in negotiations going on through the night. It’s better to wait and get the right agreement.”
Blair’s hit the nail on the head. Much of European integration has been based on the “bicycle theory” — the idea that if integration does not keep moving forward, the whole project will topple over. This has led to the implementation of some less-than-ideal policies/governance structures on the logic that they were “too big to fail.” A reappraisal might be the best thing for the European Union, and its member states. As for Chirac’s proposal, it’s tough to see how it could be applied towards the proposed constitution. The two-track EU works by dividing up issue areas. The constitution is about process. That’s slightly more difficult to parse out.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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