FOLLOWING THE EUROPEAN UNION

Libyan ambassador in the Foreign office today Walter...you know...to meet Jack Straw. Summit meeting with Blair and Col Quadhafi soon. Prince Charles sent to Iran to pass on our best wishes to the mad mullahs. Whats going on?

I think Blair has finally had enough of Bush. Either Blair thinks he can poke Bush in the eye and get away with it, or he knows something we don't about the likelyhood of a Kerry victory.

Hmmm - Tony and Gerhard will have talks in Berlin this week as well.

World > Europe
from the February 10, 2004 edition

Europe's small states fear domination by 'big three'

By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

PARIS – It began mundanely enough. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder invited French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss social security reform and other issues of common concern at a meeting in Berlin, set for Feb. 18. But with the European Union set to admit 10 new members in just three months - despite being deadlocked over a new constitution to govern the unwieldy 25-nation group - some smaller European countries are beginning to wonder whether the three-way meeting is so innocent. Could it be, they wonder, that their powerful neighbors might be planning to hijack the EU in the name of efficiency?
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was the first to sound the alarm publicly, warning recently that "there cannot be a directorate, a divisive nucleus which would threaten European unity." Eyebrows have been raised in other medium-size countries, too, from Poland to Spain.
It is early days yet, however, say some commentators. "I don't think there is a blueprint for a directorate orchestrating things behind the scenes," says John Palmer, head of the European Policy Centre, a think tank in Brussels. "This is an exploratory meeting. But if there is no constitution and the EU is paralyzed by a lack of institutional capability, the vacuum would be filled by arrangements such as the triumvirate."
Irish Prime Minster Bertie Ahern, who currently presides over the EU, is seeking to salvage the constitution which heads of state failed to agree to last December, in the hope of reviving it this year.
Meanwhile, the frustrations of making policy and acting on it when so many voices demand to be heard have already driven the big three to act on their own. Britain, France, and Germany succeeded in persuading Iran to accept surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, after a diplomatic drive last year that excluded other EU members.
The draft European constitution would create a European foreign minister, and an embryonic European diplomatic corps, which would make such national end runs around EU institutions less likely.
German officials insist that the Feb. 18 meeting holds no hidden threat. "It is not being held against anyone," a spokesman for Mr. Schröder says. "But the three countries have an interest in moving Europe forward in the interests of Europe as a whole." The spokesman, insisting on anonymity, adds: "We don't want a fast-track Europe. But that could be an effect of the lack of a constitution."
Some outside the "big three" say they don't believe it. "Most people in the Polish government think the talk of a fast track is just bluff, a tool to blackmail Poland and force it to make concessions" in the wrangle over national voting strengths under the constitution, says Janusz Reiter, head of the Center for International Relations in Warsaw.
At the same time, Poland and some other smaller EU members see Tony Blair's invitation to the Berlin meeting as a reassurance. "Better three than two," says Adam Rotfeld, undersecretary at the Polish Foreign Ministry. "These three reflect the diversity of understanding of some transatlantic problems."
That very diversity, some analysts predict, would make it hard for Paris, London, and Berlin to offer cohesive leadership on many issues. The threesome "is based on mutual diffidence, which is not the best foundation on which to build anything," suggests Sergio Romano, a prominent Italian commentator on foreign affairs.
Berlin and Paris, however, seem to think they can overcome this, encouraged by Mr. Blair's recent shift toward a common European defense policy in the face of US reservations.
It has become clear that the Franco-German "locomotive," which for decades has pulled Europe together and pushed it toward greater integration by setting the agenda, can no longer do so alone when 25 countries are involved. Last year, France and Germany failed to carry the continent with them in their opposition to the US-led war in Iraq, and could not win approval for the constitution they both wanted, in the face of opposition from Poland and Spain.
The "big three" do share some concerns - they are net contributors to the EU budget; Europe's dwindling hopes of becoming the world's most competitive economy by 2010 are pinned on them; and they are linchpins of Europe's putative common foreign and security policy.
But Britain - which has not adopted the euro, the EU's common currency, and has stayed out of the "border-free" Schengen zone - is much more cautious about building strong European institutions than its two partners.
The three nations "want to close the gaps between them," and mend the damage done by their split over Iraq, says Mr. Palmer, "but not to the point that they will share a common strategy on EU integration."
Meanwhile, Ireland has canvassed all 25 current and future EU members to identify the lingering bones of contention over the constitution - the most notable is the proposal to simplify EU decisionmaking by weighting national votes. Spain and Poland, which would lose influence under this system, have resisted the reform, but Ahern is still hoping to break the deadlock by June.
However the crisis is resolved, some of the new EU members hope that it will lead to new thinking. "Triple Alliances and directorates are concepts from the past," argues Mr. Rotfeld. "We are at the beginning of a qualitatively new stage, and we should try to avoid explaining new developments by old patterns.
"The main problem," he adds, "is whether the European Union will be understood as a community, with big, medium, and small members, or whether it will just be big power politics."

Poland isn't a EU member yet but will become it later this year - together with the other nine new members.

I sure would love to see the UK join the Euro countries. Most things should become cheaper when we visit.

Which I doubt, c.i.! :wink:

(Besides, the UK is expensive for continental Europeans as well!)

Walter, But to compete with the Euro countries, prices must be more competitive with continental Europe - don't you think? Otherwise, they'd just be isolated as before the change over.

BTW, that's the reason why I said "should become."

You see, c.i., I'm fully convinced, that after the introduction of the Euro was announced, millions of shopkeepers, companies, dealers, restaurants owners, .... sent billions of candles to every pilgrimage place of every religion around the world.

Well, it's much easier to compare prices now, that's correct.

it's been our experience that even after the introduction of the euro there are still price-differences between the various countries of the "euro-block". perhaps they are not as pronounced as before, but different wage-levels (cost of living) will continue to make a difference in the pricing stucture. after all, there are price differences for goods and services within canada and the united states; so i don't think we could expect uniform prices in europe either, or could we ? hbg

hbg, You make a good point about price differences as being the norm, but don't you think that being the most expensive country (by and large of the best economies) of Euroland would be somewhat of a disadvantage?

I don't think so. As Walter says, the Euro would make the difference in price levels more visible to the average person. But today's exporters and importers have pocket calculators and a strong incentive to buy from the cheapest country and sell to the most expensive country. They can easily figure out price differnces already. Since there is free trade and free migration between the UK and the rest of the European Union, realative price levels should already be in equilibrium. Therefore I wouldn't expect Britain's introduction of the Euro to change the price differences.

PS: If you compare price levels across American states -- Massachusetts vs. Maine, for example -- I bet you find price differences that are in the same ball park as those between European countries -- Euro or not.

I've written this somewhere earlier: all EU-trade is already done in one currency: EURO now and ECU before (even between those three coutries, which didn't join the EURO-zone).

And, c.i., you certainly remember that there are big differences in prices throughout Britain as well :wink:

c.i. : being the most expensive EURO country would allow the british to keep all the riff-raff out ! (smiling - just a tad !). hbg

c.i. : remember this one ? english news paper headline :

"Fog in Channel - Continent cut off". (or modified : high costs in england ! continent cut off !)

Okay, okay, guys, I hear "all" of you! Since they already use the Euro for business, I guess changing the looks of the currency will make little difference. Shucks! I was looking forward to seeing a leveling of prices in the UK - especially London. Oh, well.......lost my head for a minute, hoping.....

I want to the whole of Europe to have one currency; it will make make trading much easier. [/i]
(Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I), in a letter to his brother Louis)

LOL. I tihnk Napoleon's idea of one currency was tht everybody would also speak French.

Not really: I've (in original) a licence to carry firearms, from said Louis' 'Royaume Westphalie' - it's in French and German. [Just thinking: it expired in 1813, I should re-new it quickly ]

Walter just a question (and also to all other Europeans here): do you feel European, or German, or maybe worldcitizen? For me: I'm proud to be European, but more of being Dutch, and I think that this will always be the case. For that, I don't think the EU can ever reach the unity the USA for example has.