03 May 2007

A Mini-treaty or a Mini-Europe?

Dear readers,

In this day of celebrating Free Press all over the World, I couldn't abstain from blogging. I was happily surprised today to read in the as usual excellent EU-Observer that Romano Prodi is now favoring an adoption of the rejected EU constitutional treaty by the countries which already ratified it. These 18 countries (which include Italy and Germany but not France nor the Netherlands) could then go on with the improved decision rules, while the others stay with the unpractical Nice treaty provisions.

I have to say that I am totally in favor of this. Some countries didn't join the Euro or the Schengen agreement, either because they were not ready for these improvements or because they had political reservations. Why not do the same for this new addendum to the European building? We (the French and the Dutch), together with the English, are obviously not ready to enjoy the improvements of the new rules. French and Dutch citizens seem to appreciate the opacity and lack of democracy of the current rules. Why should we stop other citizens, more interested in their rights and more advanced in their political culture, to go further than us along that road.

When our populations and politicians will be adult enough to understand this, then they will be able to join the rest of Europe. This, and maybe also the fear of being left behind with the English... ;-)

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