What is notoriously evident among the EU elite is not just a lack of intellectual power but an obstinacy and blindness bordering on imbecility.
As the great pan-European poet Schiller put it: "There is a kind of stupidity with which even the Gods struggle in vain."
Paul Johnson Wall Street Journal 17/6 2005

Jacques Chirac reacted by appointing as prime minister Dominque de Villepin, a frivolous playboy who has never been elected to anything and is best known for his view that Napoleon should have won the Battle of Waterloo and continued to rule Europe. Gerhard Schröder of Germany simply stepped up his anti-American rhetoric.

First, it has tried to do too much, too quickly and in too much detail. Jean Monnet, architect of the Coal-Steel Pool, the original blueprint for the EU, always said: "Avoid bureaucracy. Guide, do not dictate. Minimal rules." He had been brought up in, and learned to loathe, the Europe of totalitarianism, in which communism, fascism and Nazism competed to impose regulations on every aspect of human existence. He recognized that the totalitarian instinct lies deep in European philosophy and mentality -- in Rousseau and Hegel as well as Marx and Nietzsche -- and must be fought against with all the strength of liberalism, which he felt was rooted in Anglo-Saxon individualism.

The rise of anti-Americanism, a form of irrationalism deliberately whipped up by Messrs. Schröder and Chirac, who believe it wins votes, is particularly tragic, for the early stages of the EU had their roots in admiration of the American way of doing things and gratitude for the manner in which the U.S. had saved Europe first from Nazism, then (under President Harry Truman) from the Soviet Empire -- by the Marshall Plan in 1947 and the creation of NATO in 1949.

Europe's founding fathers -- Monnet himself, Robert Schumann in France, Alcide de Gasperi in Italy and Konrad Adenauer in Germany -- were all fervently pro-American and anxious to make it possible for European populations to enjoy U.S.-style living standards. Adenauer in particular, assisted by his brilliant economics minister Ludwig Erhardt, rebuilt Germany's industry and services, following the freest possible model.

The last Continental statesman who grasped the historical and cultural context of European unity was Charles de Gaulle. He wanted "the Europe of the Fatherlands (L'Europe des patries)" and at one of his press conferences I recall him referring to "L'Europe de Dante, de Goethe et de Chateaubriand." I interrupted: "Et de Shakespeare, mon General?" He agreed: "Oui! Shakespeare aussi!"

Mr. Johnson, a historian, is the author, inter alia, of "Modern Times" (Perennial, 2001). His most recent book is "Washington," due to be published this month by HarperCollins.
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"... en hård kärna av folkpartister (även kända som Hamilton/Munkhammarliberalerna) som är så förälskade i EMU-projektet att de i princip är beredda att offra vad som helst och argumentera hur som helst för att Sverige ska bli medlem"
Peter Wolodarski, DNs ledarsida 19/3 2003