I’m convinced that the world needs an independent, united, imaginative and strong Europe, which is the friend of the whole world in the sense of being ready to talk to the whole world. A Europe which, I hope, will at last give itself the institutions it needs: a president elected for two and a half years. This depends on our Irish friends. I want to pay tribute to the courage of Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who has announced a referendum for 2009. We will support them. Ireland has to understand that Europe needs her and that she needs Europe. This will enable us to have a Europe which can speak with one voice ”“ as it has to in the gas crisis where I would call on everyone to have a modicum of common sense.
Mene, mene, tekel uparsin.
The writing is on the wall.
I will be more optimistic about the EU if it can weather this crisis. I’ve been dubious about the EU from the beginning because when economic push comes to shove, individual countries are going to do whatever is in their own best interest, regardless of what a nebulous EU tells them. Because of this, I don’t think the EU is going to be viable long term, short of it becoming a dictatorial superstate.
Archer:
ay, there’s the rub
i am no expert on this but it seems to me that they could be structured like our own country with differing country mandates and laws but also agree to a federal type setup as well. they would all benefit from it as far as i can see, i just found out that their economies together are larger than our own.
But, magnolia, a United States of Europe is the very thing I don’t want to be part of! Would you?
My blood chilled at the ‘Ireland has to understand …’ part. This is the language of threat, the technique of the bully. Poor Ireland rejected the European constitution in a democratic referendum and look what has happened – the ‘Mugabe’ effect, where if you do not like what the voters decide, why, you make them vote again and again until you get the result you want.
EU wll last quite a while, IMO, because it has had the effect of stabilizing each countries’ currency, which they all know and want to continue. France has longed styled itself as the leader of the EU, since that is the only way it can any longer be considered a world power. So it is prone to making pronouncements such as these. I don’t think anyone in Europe really puts too much stock in them, at least that is what I hear from the folks in Italy and Germany and Poland that I hear from.
hi william, i may be a bit daft but wha…? would that be a bad thing? or are you being sarky and i don’t get it?
terry it is being brought up again, i read somewhere, because their economy took a gi-normous hit-don’t remember the particulars…