VARIOUS: On 50th anniversary, the EU contemplates its successes and failures

The European Union is an object of admiration and emulation in much of the world, yet it marks its 50th birthday this month little loved at home. It all began in Paris, in 1951, when Jean Monnet, the French civil servant widely regarded as the architect of European unity, set up the European Coal and Steel Community, a club of six nations: France, West Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. The idea was to to deprive any individual country of control over materials intrinsic to any conflict. After two world wars born in Europe scarred the first half of the 20th century, France and Germany were reconciled in an "ever closer union" that replaced trench warfare with late-night haggling over farm prices and fish quotas. Some analysts see the European union as the most successful example of peaceful regime change, with people living better lives than they did 50 years ago. In the half century since six countries signed the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community, the bloc's members, now numbering 27, have enjoyed near total peace, rising prosperity and growing stability unmatched in their history. After the collapse of communism symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a region divided by the Cold War was knitted together as a community of democracies, thanks largely to the EU's political standards and economic norms. The common market founded on March 25, 1957 by West Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg grew to embrace first Britain, Ireland and Denmark in 1973, then the former dictatorships of Greece, Spain and Portugal in the 1980s. Next, came formerly neutral Sweden, Finland and Austria, released from Cold War political limbo, in 1995, and then a "big-bang" eastward expansion to embrace eight former Soviet bloc countries, plus Cyprus and Malta, in 2004 and 2007. Today's union has a population of 490 million and an economy as big as that of the United States. Thirteen EU states share a single currency, the euro, driving deeper integration of a vast single market in which companies, people and capital circulate freely. Another group of countries share the open-border Schengen zone of passport-free travel, due to expand to most of the bloc's eastern newcomers later this year. Still more countries want to join the EU. Croatia and Turkey have begun accession talks, and all western Balkan states as well as Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia aspire to belong. What makes the EU unique is that it is neither a federal superstate, nor merely and international organisation. It has an executive Commission, empowered to propose laws and ensure the rules are applied uniformly by members, a directly elected parliament that shares legislative power on many policies with member governments and a court to settle disputes. Other regional groupings such as the African Union and the Latin American Mercosur trade bloc have been inspired by the European model. Yet the pace and direction of integration has led to a backlash since the early 1990s, in which voters in several member states, when given the chance, have slammed on the brakes. The European Union has had successes as well as failures, grouping as it does with different national policies which have not always seen a clear path towards a consensus. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was one of the most controversial of the EU's activities. It was designed to ensure steady prices for farmers. Its critics said it encouraged over-production, high prices to the producer and expensive food for the customer. The CAP was said to have overlooked the needs of poor farmers. This caused them to carry out increasingly violent protests in Europe, demanding higher prices for their produce. The EU said a higher increase in farm prices could exhaust its funds. But the farmers insisted that the rise was justified. They said France, with above-average inflation, was the hardest hit by the EU policy of fixing common prices. This led Irish rock star and campaigner Bob Geldof ,who would later start the Live Aid project, to criticise the EU for creating a system that ultimately led to mountains of food perishing across the bloc. "More important is this disgusting and persistent anomaly of the grain mountains the wheat mountains, the butter mountains, the wine lakes. Now it sounds almost corny to go on about that in front of you people, but it is a result of one of the crowning idiocies of the EC and that is the common agricultural policy," Geldof told European members of parliament in 1985. Another common policy was the EU's currency plan when it launched the euro in 2002 -- a single currency for all EU countries designed to strengthen economic and political cooperation. Not all countries adopted the euro, which is its supporters see as a widely accepted currency easily rivalling the U.S. dollar and as respected as the German Deutschmark use to be. One other obvious EU success in the minds of EU citizens was the abolition of borders encapsulated in the French film "Auberge Espagnole", a story of students from Europe meeting in a shared Spanish house. "I am French, Spanish, English, Danish. I am like Europe. I am simple," the main character says in the film. The EU's enlargement process has come to a grinding halt with one of the latest member states to start accession talks. Turkey may be one of EU citizens' favourite destination for ancient history, culture and leisure but the prospect of its inclusion in the 27-member bloc is controversial amongst some countries. The mainly Muslim country is still waiting for the EU to resolve its differences with the Turkish government over Cyprus and human and civil rights. An accession which, if it succeeds, will have been characterised by a series of long, nail-biting waits such as the day EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg finally agreed to allow Turkey to start accession talks in October 2006. Many see the EU as a paradoxical and complex superstate of leaders who blindly sign treaty after treaty without consulting with their people. It also sometimes perceived as a bloc that runs the risk of being increasingly disunited and incapable of agreeing on EU-wide policies and reforms which would carry it forward. Danes voted against the Maastricht Treaty on economic and monetary union in 1992 but backed it a year later. The Irish rejected the 2000 Treaty of Nice, meant to adapt EU institutions for enlargement, but also changed their minds in a second vote. Danes and Swedes both voted against joining the euro zone. And French and Dutch voters triggered a crisis of confidence in 2005 when they rejected a proposed constitution meant to give the EU stronger leadership and a fairer decision-making system. Those referendum defeats led to a crisis of confidence that lingers two years later, leaving the EU struggling on with an outdated rulev book designed for six like-minded states. When EU leaders meet next week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, they will be unable to utter the word "constitution" in their solemn Berlin Declaration or give a firm date for reforming their institutions. Nor will they be able to say how much further the bloc should expand, due to divisions over whether Turkey, Ukraine and Belarus should ever be offered full membership. Eighteen countries have ratified the constitution that would give the EU a long-term president and foreign minister, a fairer decision-making system with more policies subject to majority voting, and a greater say for European and national parliaments. Besides France and the Netherlands, Eurosceptical Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic have failed to ratify the treaty and want it slimmed down or unpicked in ways that could upset the delicate balance on which it was built. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has emerged as Europe's most influential deal-maker, faces a tough challenge in trying to revive negotiations on reform at a summit in June. "This is a unique opportunity to celebrate your unity and not and shouldn't become one of those awful, what they call train crashes where everyone actually just displays what they don't agree about," analyst jackie Davis of the European Policy Centre told Reuters. "The constitution as we see it now, we have a group of countries who want to save as much of it as they possibly can; we have a group of countries who want to have what Nicolas Sarkozy called 'a mini-treaty' and we have a group of countries who really, although they don't say it publicly, would rather the whole thing went away and we had nothing at all. At the moment, those are three irreconcilable positions. This moment, this 50th anniversary celebration, is not the moment to have that argument and any attempt, I think, to directly use this declaration to try and sort out that argument would backfire." Former French President Francois Mitterrand, in his last speech to the European Parliament, warned the EU against divisiveness "We must win over history, and if we don't, we must know that we will be forced to face the truth: nationalism is war," he said. Davis hopes that the Berlin summit will be an occasion to follow the elders' advice. After all, the EU is far from paralysed: its leaders last week unanimously adopted an ambitious plan on climate change, energy efficiency and green fuels, claiming world leadership in the fight against global warming. However, unanimity rules have slowed moves to build a common foreign and security policy and tackle immigration and crime. It remains to be seen if the only thing the EU can agree on is the now world famous flag under whose banner its leaders endlessly fight. Please note: In shot no. 21, British pound note included in error. The pound is still in circulation and has NOT been superseded by the euro.

ITN Source | March 26, 2007

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