Cops welcomed with smoke bombs and flares Dublin Pride 19:57 Jul 14 0 comments Gemma O'Doherty: The speech you never heard. I wonder why? 05:28 Jan 15 0 comments A Decade of Evidence Demonstrates The Dramatic Failure Of Globalisation 15:39 Aug 23 1 comments Thatcher's " blind eye" to paedophilia 15:27 Mar 12 0 comments Total Revolution. A new philosophy for the 21st century. 15:55 Nov 17 0 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Anti-EmpireNorth Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi? Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi? Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi? ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi? US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
Elon Musk Shuts Down US Government Foreign Aid Agency and Locks Out 600 Staffers Overnight After Tru... Mon Feb 03, 2025 15:41 | Will Jones
Food Firms Revolt Against Net Zero Over Australia?s Energy Crisis Mon Feb 03, 2025 13:00 | Sallust
Wind Turbine Bursts into Flames Mon Feb 03, 2025 11:00 | Will Jones
Year After Lockdown Saw Massive Spike in Attempted Child Suicides Mon Feb 03, 2025 09:00 | Richard Eldred
The Chancellor?s ?Growth Agenda? is Full of Sound and Fury, but Signifies Nothing Mon Feb 03, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionVoltaire, International Newsletter N?118 Sat Feb 01, 2025 12:57 | en 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp Sat Feb 01, 2025 12:16 | en Misinterpretations of US trends (1/2), by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jan 28, 2025 06:59 | en Voltaire, International Newsletter #117 Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:54 | en The United States bets its hegemony on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:26 | en |
Merci, Mr Chirac!
national |
miscellaneous |
news report
Saturday March 08, 2003 22:10 by bruno
BRUNO KAUFMANN - "Once again we can note that this part of the world needs a crisis to rouse it from its complacency." EUOBSERVER / SALT&PEPPER - When a German magazine starts to call him the "Emperor of Europe" and when a united political opposition marches through the streets of Paris to back "the biggest liar in history" - as they called him before last year's presidential elections -, then something has changed indeed. But the 70-year-old statesman Jacques Chirac is using the world crisis on Iraq not only to consolidate his leadership at home and in relationship to Germany, but with his schoolmasterly reprimands of the EU candidate countries Mr Chirac has also delivered another rare benefit: a transnational public debate on the future of Europe. In the footsteps of General de Gaulle But outside the Franco-German axis of friendship many Europeans have understood Jacques Chirac's attitude of dominance and arrogance as an invitation - often for the first time - to reflect and deliberate about the future of a political body called the European Union. In the EU Constitutional Convention new alliances have emerged, like the axis of intergovernmental "Bush-ists" in the West (UK, Denmark and Spain) and 19 smaller countries interested in defending a strong position for the European Commission under the "New order for Europe" (Joschka Fischer in his Convention speech on February 28). The rise and fall of "hardcore" leadership In a similar way, the No-votes in the Danish and the Irish Treaty Referendums gave the impression of a learning process towards a more democratic and transparent Union. However, as soon as the public debate dies down, the will of the powerful to share power and reform the Union from below decreases as well. This time the situation is somewhat different. Firstly, the crisis is not limited to Europe; and secondly, the current constitutional debate ahead of the Eastern enlargement provides a (still weak) institutional framework for bringing Europe a couple of steps further. Bulwark against a federal Europe On the surface a lot of Europeans support Chirac's US-critical strategy, but only a few really share the French President's claim to shape the EU's internal structure by establishing a strong and common foreign policy for the Union. One of Chirac's warmest supporters is Sweden's Prime Minister Göran Persson: "He (Chirac) is a bulwark against a federal Europe", stated Persson recently in an interview with the daily Dagens Nyheter and confessed: "I like this man". Next step: a Europe-wide constitutional referendum Under the current Treaty structure, the governments of member states have a dual position of power: as executives in their own countries and as legislatives at the EU level. Both Parliaments and Peoples have been left outside. If it were to go the way Chirac and a junior partner like Persson would like it to go, this paternalistic and centralistic direction would be further strengthened. And no doubt there are many "leaders" out there who in the shadow of the brute force Bush-Blair-style would like to strengthen their own positions. A European public sphere in the making In this perspective the EU Convention constitutes a unique opportunity of bringing both Europe and democracy further. The most important factor for the success of this political enterprise will not be the date when the first EU Constitution is delivered, but the way it is decided and ratified. Thus, the next step must be a Europe-wide constitutional referendum. By his behaviour the French President has brought this demand further. Merci, Mr Chirac! Join the debate BRUNO KAUFMANN - is a peace- and conflict researcher, radio journalist and president of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe in Amsterdam. Website Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe |
View Full Comment Text
save preference
Comments (7 of 7)