Rolf Englund om EU-grundlagen ever closer union

"ever closer union"

Det är målsättningen om ett ständigt fastare förbund
- "ever closer union" -
som är själva grundbultsfelet med EU.
Kunde vi rulla tillbaka Sovjetunionen skall vi väl kunna rulla tillbaka Europeiska Unionen.
Rolf Englund Barometerns website 7/6 2005

British/American Special Relationship and European Union
Britain cannot have two best friends
John Bolton, Financial Times 1/8 2007

At Tuesday's press conference in Strasbourg, the Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was asked what the European Union would be after the new reform treaty has been negotiated and agreed.
His answer: Europe is an empire, a non-imperial one, must be said.
But still, an empire.
EUX.TV 10/7 2007

If you want to understand what is happening to the European Union’s constitution, the EU flag is a good place to start.
European leaders will agree to delete references to the flag in the constitution.
Everybody knows the flags will keep flying.
The words in the constitution will change.
But the substance will remain the same.
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times June 12 2007

The European Project has been about building a European super-state - Ruth Lea
Europe's ``ever closer union'' is turning into an ever more divided one - Bloomberg
Det är målsättningen om "ever closer union" som är själva grundbultsfelet med EU - Rolf Englund

From the Treaty of Paris (1951), which set up the European Coal and Steel Community, and the Treaty of Rome (March 1957), which set up the European Economic Community, to the Constitutional Treaty (signed in 2004), the EU has been working towards the "ever closer union of the peoples of Europe".
The European Project, from the very start, has been about building a European super-state – though cleverly masked as an economic exercise.
A looser and more open Europe is surely the way forward for the 21st century.
Ruth Lea, Daily Telegraph 20/11 2006

Ruth Lea is the director of the Centre for Policy Studies and a non-executive of Arbuthnot Banking Group

There are real public concerns about the scope and pace of enlargement. Moreover, these concerns are likely to be intensified with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, both very poor countries, in January 2007.

Under the current Treaty of Nice, the EU cannot have more than 27 members. The maximum figure will be reached /have been reached/ with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria.

In February 2005, French President Chirac inserted a clause into the French Constitution, subjecting every new candidate for EU membership to a referendum of the French electorate. The implication is that any enlargement beyond the current EU plus Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia (whose entry negotiations were in the pipeline before the amendment was pushed through) can be rejected by the French electorate.

Apart from Croatia, the other candidate countries comprise the Republic of Macedonia and, most controversially of all, Turkey. Potential candidate countries are the West Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.

The solution to both these challenges is to replace the monolithic 20th century EU model with a new 21st century "à la carte Europe", where individual states can negotiate different relationships with the EU, deciding which is the most appropriate.

There are many possible catalysts for this desirable, arguably necessary, change. I suggest two.

The first is if the UK were to open negotiations for a changed relationship with the EU to one basically of free trade, opting out of political union and thus ceasing to be a member of the EU as currently structured.

The second would be the formal recognition that some candidate countries, notably Turkey, cannot be full members of the present monolithic EU.

Full text

Början på sidan - Top of page

What was meant to be Europe's ``ever closer union'' is turning into an ever more divided one.
As the European Union marks its 50th birthday this week, it faces a growing backlash against the federal visions of its post-World War II founders, who gave Europe a common market, a currency, a flag and an anthem.
March 19, 2007 (Bloomberg)

``Europe faces one of its gravest political crises since World War II,'' says Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
``It's completely conceivable that the EU has reached its high-water mark.''

For years, the six original members sought a more closely knit economy with the goal of bringing political unity in through the back door. That was the two-track strategy mapped out by Jean Monnet, the French cognac salesman turned founding father of a united Europe.

The high point of European unity was in 1991, when European leaders met in Maastricht, the Netherlands, to sketch the road map to a single currency.
The federalists, though, haven't given up. They are pinning their hopes on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in her first stint in the bloc's six-month rotating presidency, to salvage at least part of the constitution, which 18 countries have ratified. A few want to go even further: Belgium's prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, is calling for a United States of Europe with its own taxes and army. Merkel's first step, at the March 25 festivities, is to win a consensus for a declaration on the EU's future.

The Germans have already made one concession, jettisoning the word ``constitution.''
The new, less provocative term: ``institutional settlement.''

Full text

Grundlagen - The Constitution/institutional settlement

Början på sidan - Top of page

Det folken har sagt nej till är, efter vad jag förstår, att EU skall utvecklas till en stat.

Det är målsättningen om ett ständigt fastare förbund - "ever closer union" som är själva grundbultsfelet med EU.

Återför makt från EU till de nationella parlamenten.
Avskaffa EMU.

Man måste vara blind om man inte ser att EU skaffar sig statens alla institutioner och symboler, flagga, mynt, president, parlament, domstol, försvar - och - som man nu försökte - en grundlag.

Kunde vi rulla tillbaka Sovjetunionen skall vi väl kunna rulla tillbaka Europeiska Unionen.

I själva verket verkar det som om om tillbakarullningen redan har börjat.

Barometern-OT må ha varit mycket skeptisk till tanken att med politiska beslut skapa en gemensam europeisk valuta – euron.
Men på det rent politiska planet ser tidningen en europeisk federalism som den framtid som ger störst frihet och möjligheter för Europas medborgare.
Replik på Rolf Englund
Barometern 8/6 2005

Början på sidan - Top of page