June 22, 2007
Pressing matters
Expectations were not high yesterday at the Justus Lipsius building that Angela Merkel’s first press conference of this week’s tricky summit would bring much in the way of predicting the eventual outcome. If anything, these sunk further as the clock ticked and the event was delayed from 10.30pm to 11.00pm, finally kicking off at just short of midnight. Even then, however, Ms Merkel’s 15-minute performance, a charming-yet-brutal exercise in stonewalling, broke records in the utter absence of information it delivered about the state of the talks about reforming the EU’s institutions.
But the chancellor had good reasons to keep things brief and boring. Her first bilateral meeting with Lech Kaczynski, long billed as the summit’s most likely spoiler, which was originally planned over breakfast, turned into a one-hour nightcap. After her short public interlude, Ms Merkel was whisked back to her suite to meet the Polish president. The bilateral then turned into a quadrilateral as two precious Merkel allies, Valdus Adamkus, the Lithuanian president, and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy joined in to apply gentle pressure on their Polish colleague – to some effect, it seems. By Friday morning, German negotiators were beginning the worry that the British, not the Poles, had taken on the role of potential deal-wrecker in chief.
Hang on, why is it Britain this Poland that?
The French and the Dutch both voted against this wretched constitution. Not the Brits and not the Poles. The French and the Dutch. Both members of the Euro currency. Both members of the original six. Both at the core of Europe. Both do not want it, both rejected it.
But still the Euro juggernaut roles on, ever more replicating that other union, the Soviet Union.
The EU is a scam. It is a 1950’s problem to a 1930’s problem. It is outdated and irrelevant. The sooner it crumbles – like every other failed European coalition or treaty that litters history – that better we all will be.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 22nd, 2007 at 1:10 pm | Report this commentHang on, I think you’ll find the French and the Dutch voted no to a different constitution - the British and the Poles are trying to negotiate a new text.
The EU model of cooperation is being copied the world over - it being the most sincere form of flattery and all that.
Facile hyperbolae about the 1930s and the Soviet Union really don’t add much…
Posted by: D Jones | June 22nd, 2007 at 2:39 pm | Report this commentOK, so what will the French and the Dutch vote this time?
We will never know, because this time the EU politburo is determined not to ask.
“We know what’s good for you, we know what you need, we don’t care what you think, we will ram it down your throats like it or not…”
Yep, it’s becoming more and more Soviet.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 23rd, 2007 at 12:33 am | Report this comment