Comments on: Enlargement fatigue http://blogeuropa.eu/2006/06/15/enlargement-fatigue-2/ Ideas, debates, analysis et al. Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:35:22 +0000 hourly 1 By: Alex Ellis http://blogeuropa.eu/2006/06/15/enlargement-fatigue-2/comment-page-1/#comment-901 Alex Ellis Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:26:34 +0000 http://blogeuropa.eu/?p=31#comment-901 There are two tempting but equally unwise approaches to the Constitutional question. One is to say "the Constitution and nothing but" - which ignores two "nos". The other is to say "the Constitution is dead" - which ignores 15 "yeses". These apparent certainties are dead ends. The way to get on the offensive is to address the issues on which citizens say they want "more Europe" eg on terrorism, on promoting European values in the world, on energy; and at the same time return to the reality that an enlarging Europe needs reforms to its rules to improve its accountability, efficiency and coherence. The risk is that the cries of crisis and despair will become self-fulfilling, by (unwittingly) strengthening those who do not want an effective and open Europe; or indeed an enlarging Europe. We don't have that luxury; the world, which is changing very fast, won't wait for the EU. There are two tempting but equally unwise approaches to the Constitutional question. One is to say “the Constitution and nothing but” – which ignores two “nos”. The other is to say “the Constitution is dead” – which ignores 15 “yeses”.

These apparent certainties are dead ends. The way to get on the offensive is to address the issues on which citizens say they want “more Europe” eg on terrorism, on promoting European values in the world, on energy; and at the same time return to the reality that an enlarging Europe needs reforms to its rules to improve its accountability, efficiency and coherence.

The risk is that the cries of crisis and despair will become self-fulfilling, by (unwittingly) strengthening those who do not want an effective and open Europe; or indeed an enlarging Europe. We don’t have that luxury; the world, which is changing very fast, won’t wait for the EU.

]]> By: Kirsty Hughes http://blogeuropa.eu/2006/06/15/enlargement-fatigue-2/comment-page-1/#comment-900 Kirsty Hughes Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:13:21 +0000 http://blogeuropa.eu/?p=31#comment-900 A more honest debate on enlargement would be a very welcome development - but one we are not too likely to see. Those who oppose enlargement often do so without admitting it and for reasons that they don't want to acknowledge either. So for example, there is a lot of xenophobia and Islamophobia in the opposition to Turkey's membership. For a country like France, many who care about France's political leadership in Europe feel France lost a lot of political power in the EU after German reunification and again with enlargement to 25 countries in 2004, so they certainly don't want a country larger than them like Turkey coming in. But again these arguments are often not admitted openly and hide behind 'absoprtion' arguments. In the case of Turkey, admitting one country of 70 million people will be a lot easier in many ways than the 2004 enlargment which added about 75 million people but 10 countries and so 10 new ministers round the table making debate much more difficult. A more honest debate on the constitution and democracy would be good too but perhaps unlikely as well - the constitution was meant to improve EU democracy but now France and the Netherlands democratically said no, the real focus of debate is how to amend the constitution in such a way that countries can ratify it without referenda. So what we see whether on democracy or enlargement is an EU on the defensive, not delivering to its own publics let alone facing up to its role in the wider world. A more honest debate on enlargement would be a very welcome development – but one we are not too likely to see. Those who oppose enlargement often do so without admitting it and for reasons that they don’t want to acknowledge either. So for example, there is a lot of xenophobia and Islamophobia in the opposition to Turkey’s membership. For a country like France, many who care about France’s political leadership in Europe feel France lost a lot of political power in the EU after German reunification and again with enlargement to 25 countries in 2004, so they certainly don’t want a country larger than them like Turkey coming in. But again these arguments are often not admitted openly and hide behind ‘absoprtion’ arguments. In the case of Turkey, admitting one country of 70 million people will be a lot easier in many ways than the 2004 enlargment which added about 75 million people but 10 countries and so 10 new ministers round the table making debate much more difficult.

A more honest debate on the constitution and democracy would be good too but perhaps unlikely as well – the constitution was meant to improve EU democracy but now France and the Netherlands democratically said no, the real focus of debate is how to amend the constitution in such a way that countries can ratify it without referenda. So what we see whether on democracy or enlargement is an EU on the defensive, not delivering to its own publics let alone facing up to its role in the wider world.

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