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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (32518)	12/10/2003 10:57:56 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Concieved as a way of precluding the disasters of WWI and WWII, the Benelux countries combined with France, Germany and Italy in a Common Market that was dominated by France and Germany. When this was expanded to 12 and then 15 members, the France-Germany axis remained dominate. Clearly this Franco-Deutschland axis wants to retain it's control in an EU with 25 members. But the reality is a tipping point has been passed. As the community got ever larger, the relative significance of the axis became increasingly less. When a new constitution was proposed that would enshrine the power of the old axis, others balked. Power shock for France and Germany in new Europe In the past, when France and Germany pulled together, the rest of Europe followed. But their once-meek neighbours are fed up with being shoved around and have turned negotiations on a landmark EU constitution into a tug of war. The stakes at an EU summit starting Friday could not be higher as Paris and Berlin fight to preserve a constitution draft that would bolster their central role in a bloc due to grow from 15 to 25 members next year. Whatever the outcome of the Brussels meet, analysts say the two have already had a foretaste of the new power dynamics in an enlarged EU and have hurt their case with tactical blunders and a high-handed approach to its rules. "The Franco-German engine worked when the EU had 12 members. It got more complicated at 15. With 25, it is near impossible," said Hans Stark, European affairs analyst at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI). French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder say proposals to reform Brussels institutions and link EU voting power more closely with national population size are vital to stave off a decision-making gridlock. But critics of a text drafted under the aegis of ex-French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing do not see why they should give up the better deal they got in the Nice Treaty of 2000. "If anyone was expecting that in an enlarged EU, Poland would shuffle off into a corner, keep its head down and deprive itself of the right to vote, they should think again," Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller warned recently. ... from forbes.com JMO lurqer