Perot's '92 vote total wasn't all that much out of line with your "Others" category, as I recall ... somewhere in the 'teems, without looking it up. And I agree The A,erican Public is afflicted with Political Apathy; our election turnouts are on the whole not onl;y embarrasing, but appear to be trending lower every cycle. We had quite a discussion of that phenomonon on another thread back in the excitement {yeah ,,, well ....
) of the primaries.
Honestly, I don't foresee the imminent collapse of The EU. What I do see is a gradual growth of The EU into something at once very different from what it had been, and from what the original members had envisaged. Frankly, nobody knows what you've got there yet ... not even you folks. Perhaps least of all you folks
.
Walter Hinteler wrote:Well, re right-wing: a good news from Italy, where Forza Italia (Silvio Berlusconi's party) lost four seats - ´getting just 21 percent of the vote in the European Parliament election, eight points less than its score in the 2001 general election. [sorry: :wink: ]
Yeah, alongside the Austrian far right's loss thats gotta be one of the more positive results. High turnout, too, in Italy.
Among the worst must be the new record high of the Flemish Block - just weeks after a court censured it for racism, the voters gave it the biggest jump forward since "Black Sunday" over a decade ago, in the twelfth (I think) elections in a row in which it gained extra % ... A quarter of the vote in the regional elections in Flanders that were held alongside the Euroelections.
Also really bad is the Czech result - winning, with 9 seats, the pro-market, nationalist, Eurosceptic (and back when it was in government, corrupt) Civc Democratic Party of Vaclav Klaus - in second place, with 5 seats, the Communist Party - the only Communist party in Central Europe that changed neither name nor orientation after '89, and remains unreformed and unrepentant. Social- and Christian-Democrats and liberals far behind.
Interesting - one of I think only two governing parties that did not lose in the European elections was the Spanish Socialist Party ... belying the Conservative Party's claim that its election defeat in the national parliamentary elections was solely due to the effect of the terrorist attack.
Anyway, on Berlusconi's loss and Italian politics ... you thouhgt my table on Dutch politics above was complicated?
Check this one on the Italian results ...
On the left, the "Olive" has 31%, two Communist parties have 6% and 2%, the Greens 3%, corruption fighter Di Pietro's party 2% and the People's Alliance (?) 1%.
On the right, Berlusconi's "Forza Italia" has 21%, the postfascist National Alliance 12%, the Christian Democrat Centrists 6%, Bossi's "Northern League" 5% and the Socialists 2% (yes, thats on the right, still - Craxi's heirs, I presume).
In the middle, there's Emma Bonino with 2%, and further seats beyond the two-block system go to the Pensioners Party (1%), the Social Alternative (?, 1%) and the neofascist FT (1%).
No matter,
here's the summary: it means the centre-left now gets 46,1% (+1,6% compared to 2001); while the centreright got 45,4% (-4,1% compared to 2001).
Governments jolted by election results; a failure 'to sell Europe to the people'
BRUSSELS The record low turnout and bruising defeat of governing parties in the European Parliament elections have dimmed chances for the adoption of a European constitution and cast fresh doubts on the planned further eastern expansion of the Union, analysts said Monday..
The protest vote jolted governments and caused foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to engage in a debate on whether they should slow their plans for an ever-closer Union or quickly cement them..
‘‘This was a clear democratic message about European institutions: We don’t understand them and they scare us,’’ said Jean-Philippe Roy, a political science professor at the University of Tours..
With unease about the Union’s May 1 expansion dominating much of the euroskeptic debate in Western Europe, the disaffection displayed in the vote on Sunday risks casting a shadow over the planned expansion to Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 and may harden opposition against Turkey’s starting membership talks at the end of the year..
And as anti-Europe parties, notably in Britain, gained ground across the Continent, the notion that a country might one day secede from the Union is no longer unthinkable, analysts say..
Seventeen percent of British voters chose the U.K. Independence Party, which advocates the immediate withdrawal of Britain from the Union..
Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former television presenter and star candidate of the U.K. Independence Party’s list, said Monday that his party would work hard to hamper the European Parliament..
‘‘We want to wreck it,’’ Kilroy-Silk said. ‘‘We are going to expose the corruption and how they waste your money, sitting around in restaurants.’’.
Euroskeptic parties in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and the Czech Republic also picked up seats in the Parliament..
An election that was meant to be a symbol of the joyous reunification of the Continent only six weeks ago became a reminder of how detached Europeans feel from the EU. .
Turnout was significantly lower than even some pessimistic polls had predicted, especially in the EU’s youngest democracies..
In Poland, four out of five eligible voters did not cast ballots. In Slovakia, less than 17 percent bothered to show up at polling stations. In Spain, the turnout was the lowest since Franco. And in France, it was the lowest in recent voting history. .
Most governing parties saw their support plummet as voters punished them for everything from unemployment to support for the war in Iraq. .
In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democrat Party recorded its worst showing in postwar history. And President Jacques Chirac of France, after seeing the vote for his center-right party collapse, had to come out on Monday to say that his prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, would not have to resign..
Leaders from the Union’s 25 countries are due to meet in Brussels on Thursday to finalize the constitution six months after talks collapsed. Although analysts believe a deal is possible at the summit meeting, the election results make the prospect of ratification in each country a long shot, especially since many countries are holding referendums on the issue. .
Timothy Garton Ash, the head of the European Studies Center at Oxford University, said he believed the chances were no more than 20 percent that the constitution would get approval from all 25 countries. .
‘‘I’d say the odds are 80 to 20 against,’’ Garton Ash said. ‘‘There’s a crisis of confidence in the European Union.’’ And failure to unanimously ratify the constitution may call into question EU membership itself. .
‘‘If the constitution is rejected in national referendums, which is a distinct possibility in Britain, the parting of ways is no longer out of the question,’’ said John Palmer, director of the European Policy Center in Brussels. .
Perhaps the biggest loser of the European election is outside the Union. Turkey is awaiting a decision later this year by European leaders on whether the EU will begin membership negotiations. The sour anti-incumbency mood among voters was interpreted by analysts as a blow to their chances..
‘‘In the face of this kind of apathy, can you really move ahead with grand projects?’’ said Heather Grabbe, the director of research at the Center for European Reform in London. ‘‘Turkey is the next grand project,’’ she said. ‘‘But which European leader is going to stick his neck out these days for the sake of the Turks?’’.
The other objective for the leaders’ summit meeting later this week was supposed to be to choose a candidate to replace the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. But foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg suggested that decision might be put off until a later meeting. The center-right European Popular Party, which has retained its dominant position in the European Parliament, winning 275 out of its 732 seats, demanded Monday that the new president be picked from its ranks..
‘‘We demand from heads of state to propose a commission president from our political family to reflect the election result,’’ said Hans-Gert Pöttering, head of the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament. ‘‘In the next election parties will be able to campaign on their candidates for the job — that may help to get people a little bit more excited.’’.
This time around the excitement was arguably limited to a number of unorthodox, colorful candidates, who added spice to an election campaign otherwise decried as dry and lifeless. .
While Dolly Buster, a Czech-born German pornographic star, failed to gain a place in the EU Parliament, a Greek soccer expert, a Portuguese writer and the Czech Republic’s only cosmonaut will all be shaping European policy with traditional politicians over the next five years. Following is a sampling of results across Europe:.
Austria (18 seats): The conservative People’s Party, the leader in the ruling coalition, saw its share in the vote fall to 33 percent, trailing the opposition Social Democrats, who took 33 percent. Socialists and Greens, who also improved their standing in the polls, on Monday demanded Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel to call an early general election two years ahead of schedule. The far-right Freedom Party, the junior partner in the governing coalition, won just six percent of the vote as many voters opted to cast their ballot for an outsider, Hans-Peter Martin, the independent anticorruption candidate who took a surprise 14 percent of the vote and two seats. .
Belgium (24 seats): Voting is mandatory and turnout was nearly 91 percent with national elections also in play. The governing Liberal party of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, with 14 percent, received fewer votes than both the opposition Christian-Democrats (17 percent) and the extreme right Vlaams Blok (14 percent.) .
Britain (78 seats): The euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party came third in the election, winning 17 percent of the vote and rattling both the governing Labour Party and its main opposition, the Conservative Party. While voters punished Prime Minister Tony Blair for his government’s support of the American-led war in Iraq, the U.K. Independence Party took more votes from euroskeptic conservative voters than traditional Labour supporters. The Tories garnered 27 percent of the vote, a drop of 10 percentage points since the previous EU election held in 1999, while Labour’s slipped just over 5 points to 22 percent..
Czech Republic (24 seats): Turnout was 27.9 percent, compared with 58 percent in the country’s last general election in 2002. The opposition Civic Democrats won the election with 30.04 percent of the votes and nine seats. .
Cyprus (6 seats): Turnout was 71.19 percent, one of the highest participation rates in the Union. The rightist opposition party DISY received 28.23 percent while the Communist Party and partner in the ruling coalition, AKEL, received 27.89 percent. Only a limited number of voters from Turkish Cypriot northern part of the island were allowed to vote..
Denmark (14 seats): The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen lost two of its five seats in the European Parliament by winning only 19 percent of the vote. Former Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was the star of this election by receiving the most votes ever for any Danish candidate running in a European election; his Social Democratic Party won 32.5 percent of the vote. The country’s main euroskeptic party, the June Movement of Jens-Peter Bonde, received only nin percent of the vote. .
.
France (78 seats): France’s governing conservatives were trounced by the opposition Socialists as voters punished them for persistently high unemployment and ahead of reforms of the health system and the labor market. France’s Socialists, the main opposition group, won 28.9 percent of the ballots, against a record abstention rate of 57 percent. The Socialists took 31, while Chirac’s conservative Union for a Popular Movement party held 17; its junior government partner, the center-right Union for French Democracy, won 11. .
Germany (99 seats): Voters gave Schröder’s Social Democrats just under 22 percent, down from 31 percent in 1999. That was the party’s worst election result in postwar voting history. The conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union and its small sister party, the Christian Social Union, together scored almost 45 percent of the vote..
Hungary (24 seats): Turnout was 38.47 percent compared with 73.5 percent in the last general election in 2002. The rightist opposition party, Fidesz, led by Viktor Orban, took 12 seats and 47.41 percent of the vote. The ruling Socialists received nine seats and 34.5 percent. The centrist Free Democrats received 2 seats and 7.73 percent..
Ireland (13 seats): Irish voters gave Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, its first-ever seat in the European Parliament, while withdrawing support for Prime Minister Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fail party, the dominant party in the governing national coalition. Sinn Fein received more than 11 percent of the vote, up from six percent at the last EU polls in 1999. Ahern’s party remains the biggest party with more than 29 percent, but it saw its share slump over nine percent. The prime minister promised a ministerial reshuffle..
Lithuania (13 seats): In the biggest of the EU’s new Baltic member states, the populist Labor Party came first in the electoral race by garnering 30.3 percent. Founded last autumn by Viktor Uspaskich, a Russian-born businessman nicknamed ‘‘Mr. Gherkin,’’ the party is likely to get five seats in the European Parliament. The governing Social Democratic Party was left in second place with 14.4 percent, while its coalition partner, the Social Liberal Party, failed to win any seats at all. .
Poland (54 seats): Turnout was the second-lowest among the 25 countries, with 20.42 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. Poland’s president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, described the poor participation as a ‘‘disease.’’ The largest share of votes, 23 percent, went to Civic Platform, the main opposition party. The governing party, the Alliance of the Democratic Left, scored just nine percent. The Polish League of Families, which opposes Polish membership in the EU, took second place, while the populist Self Defense party received fewer votes than expected..
Slovakia (14 seats): Turnout was just under 17 percent — the lowest of all countries in the Union. The country’s governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, bucked the anti-incumbency trend with the largest share of the vote: 51 percent. In second place was the rightist Movement for Democracy in Slovakia. .
Spain (54 seats): Turnout in Spain was the lowest since the Franco era, falling to a record 46 percent, down from 77 percent in the country’s last general election on March 14. Spain bucked the trend of voters withdrawing support from ruling parties, as people gave the freshly elected Socialist Party of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero a narrow margin of victory over the conservative Popular Party. Zapatero’s party won 25 of Spain’s parliamentary seats, while the center-right opposition received 23 seats..
International Herald Tribune.
Someone who can be all things to all people
Jun 16, 5:26 PM EDT
EU Leaders Seek Candidates for President By ROBERT WIELAARD
Associated Press Writer
[] BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Wanted: respected politician. Must speak French and English, German a plus. Must consider self a "true European." Must be welcome in all 25 EU capitals and in Washington.
When in Washington, wield some clout. Back in Brussels, know your place. Some leaders will see you as a threat to their country's sovereignty.
Potential applicants should hurry: European Union leaders open a summit Thursday at which they plan to pick somebody to replace Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission - the head office that runs the day-to-day affairs of the EU.
Prodi, the ex-Italian premier and bicycle buff, will step down in the fall after five years.
The leaders converging on Brussels for the two-day summit also face the complicated task of trying to adopt a constitution for 25 disparate nations, six months after a first attempt collapsed.
Faced with such a challenge, the choice of who will lead the Commission for the next five years after Prodi's mandate expires in October could be put off, diplomats said.
A few names have been circulated, but nobody campaigns publicly for the president's job, which pays about $26,700 a month, including expenses.
[] The Commission drafts legislation that is then adopted or rejected by EU governments; ensures that EU law is properly implemented and enforced in the member states; has wide powers in antitrust matters; and represents the EU states in international trade negotiations. The president tries to massage often conflicting national sentiments into a single position.
But it's hard to please everyone.
Britain, always a little suspicious of the EU enterprise, wants a president who won't push too hard for deeper integration.
France and Germany - the engines behind the European Union - don't want a heavyweight as they prefer to wield control over the EU themselves.
The selection of the EU's top executive by member nations is not a public affair and ordinary Europeans have practically no say in the matter.
They also don't appear overwhelmingly interested, based on the low turnout for last weekend's elections for the European Parliament in which "Euro-skeptic" parties did well.
Over dinner Thursday, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will present leaders with the name of a candidate he hopes will win consensus. If that fails a vote will be held. Any nominee needs final approval from the European Parliament.
One candidate who has been lobbying hard out of public view is Guy Verhofstadt, the boyish 51-year-old Belgian prime minister. Another is Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister.
Longer shots are Pat Cox, president of the outgoing European Parliament, former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen and Antonio Vitorino, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner who is reportedly favored by Britain.
Verhofstadt looks ideal - unless you're British or Italian.
He's multilingual; a traditional Liberal in the European sense, he favors growth through lower taxes, prefers to keep government out of the economy, and religion out of politics. He loves to talk about bringing government closer to the people - a quality that might profit an organization widely seen as aloof and bureaucratic.
He has impressed the German government, which said this week that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder would back him.
But Verhofstadt lacks support in Rome and London.
Britain sees him as too "federalist," bent on wanting an "EU superstate" - and Prime Minister Tony Blair has not forgiven him for laying out plans in 2003, together with France, Germany and Luxembourg, for an EU defense initiative outside the NATO alliance.
That never came to fruition, but it has probably made him unpopular in Washington - the capital where he would most need to defend EU interests.
Verhofstadt calls the selection process "a lottery.
nimh wrote:
On the left, the "Olive" has 31%, two Communist parties have 6% and 2%, the Greens 3%, corruption fighter Di Pietro's party 2% and the People's Alliance (?) 1%.
On the right, Berlusconi's "Forza Italia" has 21%, the postfascist National Alliance 12%, the Christian Democrat Centrists 6%, Bossi's "Northern League" 5% and the Socialists 2% (yes, thats on the right, still - Craxi's heirs, I presume).
In the middle, there's Emma Bonino with 2%, and further seats beyond the two-block system go to the Pensioners Party (1%), the Social Alternative (?, 1%) and the neofascist FT (1%).
People's Alliance: left-of-center Christian Democrats, heirs of the Partito Popolare.
Fiamma Tricolore (FT) is certainly beyond the two-block system, but readers should be aware. Nimh didn't say it was "in the middle". They are diehard neofascists. Berlusconi is too liberal for them.
Now, Alternativa Sociale. That's new for me.
There are more parties than children born in Italy nowadays.
I just knew Alternativa Sociale was also extreme right wing (the world "sociale" as opposed to "socialista").
Now I really know.
Their euro-representative is Alessandra Mussolini, Sophia Loren's niece and Il Duce's grand-daughter.
fbaezer wrote:Now, Alternativa Sociale. That's new for me.
There are more parties than children born in Italy nowadays.
LOL. Too true.
Then again, try following Polish politics (I gave up) ;-)
I was tempted to post here a very provocative picture of Mussolini III, but hell, this ain't a porno site, not even a soft porn site.
For you peeping toms, here's the link:
http://isidoro3.interfree.it/vip/mussolini/isiscan@vipitalia_alessandra_mussolini013.jpg
<giggles>
that woudl probably have violated the TOS, anyway ;-)
Yeah, thanks Ning, I wanted to post about that too.
Headline on broadcast news website:
Agreement reached on EU convention
Of course, the road to full ratification, with all these tricky parliamentary approvals and referendums, will be a long one. But the fact that after two days of negotiating, they actually did reach agreement now - when naysayers predicted that the election results would scuttle the whole effort - is quite pleasantly surprising, I think.
An editorial in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the day after the elections, branded the SPD (Socialdemocratic Party of Germany [Deutschland]) the Scapegoat Party of Deutschland ... because they get blamed for pretty much anything that goes wrong. <grins>
My take: these elections show such a disastrous position for the SPD, they should just give up now on trying to win the next national elections, and instead focus on pushing as much of its program through as they can, while they're still in power.
I mean, the last European elections were already a low for the SPD, but then by 2002 they managed to just (and only just) scrape by thanks to Iraq, the floods ... This time they've sunk a lot deeper still, and nothing like thats likely to come up at the last moment to save them. I mean, forget it! In 2006, Merkel will win.
Once you just accept that, you realise that theres only two years left to get any of the Red-Green programme through. I would say to Schroeder: forget about cautiously compromising with half an eye on the polls - just do what you believe in now you still have the chance.
And who knows, when the wishy-washy stuff is put overboard and you just sincerely implement what you believe in, you might actually win back the respect of the voters!
I mean, I know there's the Bundesrat with its Christian-Democrat/Liberal majority that will still force you to make a bunch of compromises ... but at least go for it. You're seen as fakeness incorporated, the man who governs purely by poll results - perhaps, by showing some genuine belief, commitment and perseverance, you might be redeemed. And if not, at least you'll probably have achieved something still in those last two years, instead of muddling through to the end.
Today's cover in the British press, as supplied by "The Wrap" (a news coverage by The Guardian, on paid subscription only):
Quote:BLAIR'S BATTLE OVER EUROPE
The Wrap is always keen to separate "reality and myth", which was the phrase used by the prime minister, Tony Blair, yesterday as he started the long slog to try and sell the European constitution.
For example, the Wrap spotted a front page headline in the World Weekly News this weekend declaring that the US vice president, Dick Cheney, is a robot. This is clearly a myth - everyone knows he is actually a cyborg: half man, half machine.
But the question of whether the deal on the constitution - signed by EU leaders after a fractious summit on Friday - is either a very good thing or the first treacherous step to abandoning UK sovereignty is a bit more tricky, especially if you are a prime minister.
The Financial Times splash says the "hard sell" has begun and the paper pictures Mr Blair quoting parts of the constitution at Sir David Frost on the BBC yesterday. Mr Blair, pictured waving a finger, was going on the offensive, the paper says. It adds that he "stressed his determination to resist pressure for an early referendum" to win what he called the "fascinating political battle ... between reality and myth".
One problem in the battle may be the fifth columnists - or defenders of the country, depending on your viewpoint - in the Labour party who want an early referendum, along with the Tories and the UK Independence party, the latter advocating withdrawal from the EU.
The Times reports that the referendum will be delayed until the spring of 2006 "because Tony Blair accepts that it will take a lengthy campaign to turn the tide of public opinion". Mr Blair has promised a "slow burn" campaign, the Guardian says.
The Tory foreign affairs spokesman, Michael Ancram, told Breakfast with Frost that the treaty was a "gateway to a country called Europe" and a fair number of people seem to agree with him. A YouGov poll at the weekend suggested if there were a referendum now, voters would reject the constitution by 49% to 23%.
But the Independent, in one of its maverick-design front pages, seeks to separate fact from the "Eurosceptic fiction" that might explain the poll result. It opens with a quote from the Sun on Friday that asserts that the treaty amounts to signing away "thousands of years of British sovereignty".
The Independent says the "fact" is that on sensitive areas like "justice and home affairs and social security" Britain cannot be outvoted if the treaty were ratified. It adds that the only area where the EU gets more power, jointly with member states, is on energy, which "could hardly be accurately characterised as the loss of a thousand years of British sovereignty".
The Mirror is also in myth-busting mode, saying that wild myths peddled by Eurosceptics include claims the EU would end the monarchy, take away the UK's seat on the UN security council and make motorists drive on the right.
But over in the Sun, political editor Trevor Kavanagh claims that Mr Blair has "put our wealth on the line" and that Britain buys more goods from the EU than the other states buy from us. He says critics of the EU are "traditionally cast as eccentrics but quotes Labour MP Frank Field, a Eurosceptic, as saying "watching him [Mr Blair] defending the indefensible, it was Tony Blair who looked like a swivel-eyed extremist".
The Telegraph says that while Mr Blair secured his famous "red lines", the 333-page text is "packed with changes that alter the basic contract between Britain and Europe". If ratified, the paper says, the treaty will turn the EU into a "single entity deriving its authority from a supreme document" and gain a "legal personality" making it able to negotiate treaties on an "equal footing with the United States".
The Guardian though calls last week's agreement a "defining moment" and says that the opinion polling shows Britain is strongly opposed to the EU constitution, but also "deeply ignorant about it". The Guardian leader says the YouGov poll showed how widespread erroneous beliefs were about the treaty, for example that it would give the EU immediate powers to raise taxes in Britain. The problem is that the public believe that the constitution is much more threatening and invasive than it actually is. Mr Blair should continue to make the case for it in an unapologetic tone, the Guardian says.
Elsewhere in the Guardian, Patrick Wintour writes that Mr Blair has fired the starting pistol on the "great campaign for Europe so many times he must be running low on ammunition". And, given that a referendum may be 18 months away, this may be "another false start".
It is going to be a long, tiring, haul on this one. Perhaps Mr Blair should follow Mr Cheney and consider becoming a cyborg?
World > Europe
from the June 21, 2004 edition
EU Constitution complete, but ratification looms large
If any of the 25 EU members fails to ratify the Constitution in the next two weeks, it could sink.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
PARIS – The European Constitution was conceived as a signpost, pointing the continent toward greater unity and greater relevance for the European Union. The charter finally agreed upon by EU leaders in Brussels Friday night, however, reflected more of their differences. And it did nothing to help break a continuing deadlock over who should take over the top EU job later this year.
Rather, the two-day summit of 25 EU member states highlighted divisions between those anxious to speed up the continent's political integration, such as France and Germany, and those who fear losing their identity in a federal Europe - Britain and Poland. The dividing line essentially mirrors the split between countries that opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and those which supported it.
At a two day summit, 25 EU member states argued down to the last comma over the constitution, the product of 30 months of wrangling, which is designed to streamline the union, making it easier for its leaders to run and for its citizens to understand. But if any of the EU members fail to ratify it in the next two years, it could still sink.
The 300 page document creates a European Foreign Minister, simplifies the voting system, gives more power to the European Parliament, and limits the areas where one country can veto EU decisions.
Despite last minute Vatican lobbying, the Constitution makes no mention of God, nor of Europe's Christian heritage, which France and others said would violate the separation of church and state.
Other contentious issues were resolved when Britain won the right to veto EU decisions on taxation, defense, and social security, and when Poland and Spain agreed to new voting rules that give them less influence than they now enjoy.
To come into force, the Constitution must win approval in all 25 EU states by either parliamentary vote or referendum. This is by no means assured in the light of rising support for parties skeptical about EU integration, which was surprisingly high at European parliamentary elections last weekend.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has promised a referendum, faces a particularly uphill task: 57 percent of Britons oppose the Constitution, according to a poll last week.
The mood of triumph at the deal on the Constitution was soon overshadowed, however, when the summit could not agree on a successor to Romano Prodi, president of the European Union's executive body.
Britain nixed two candidates backed by France and Germany, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, on the grounds that they were too 'federalist,' and sympathetic to much closer integration among EU members.
France refused to countenance the candidacy of Chris Patten, the British European Commissioner for External Affairs, because Britain has not switched to the euro, the common European currency, and is thus not a core EU member in French eyes.
A new summit will have to convene before the end of the month to settle the issue, since all three leading candidates have withdrawn their names from the race. The EU's current security and foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, may prove an acceptable compromise, analysts suggest.
Well, actually nobody really thought that this agreement would be got so (rather) fast.
Juncker, btw, was the only one, all would have agreed on (I think). But opposite to the CSM's oponion, he was the only one, who clearly said, he wouldn't take that job; and so he never had been really "in the race".
New - and old names - still in the frame include the centre-right Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the French foreign minister Michel Barnier, the Irish president of the European Parliament Pat Cox and Portuguese EU Commissioner Antonio Vitorino.
I think the new European Constitution and the model of the EU which it presages has
*broken the back of the old Franco German stitch up
*formed a genuine Union of Nation states
*is set to dominate world affairs
*frightens America....hence N American attempts to undermine it.
How long will it take before nationalistic squabbles and old hatreds rise to the top. Causing the EU to fall like Humpty Dumpty?I wonder?
You got that from what in the quoted article????
