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On March 25th, it will be 50 years since the sigining of the Treaty of Rome which created the European Economic Community (EEC), the real kick off of the unification of Europe after six countries had decided in 1951 to form the European Coal and Steel Community.
In 50 years time the EU has come a long way. Even though every single member state has its own language, culture and traditions, we've succeeded to unite the European continent around values like democracy, freedom and respect for human rights. And the Europeans have benefited from this a lot. A few of the merrits taken from the [URL="http://europa.eu/index_en.htm"]EU portal site[/URL]:
[quote][B][SIZE=2]P[/SIZE][/B][SIZE=2][B]eace and stability[/B]
[/SIZE] Fifty years without war between any of the countries which now make up the EU is unprecedented in history. Integration, and expansion from six to 27 countries, has played a major part in that. The EU has at the same time become a force for peace in the world.
[B]Freedom and democracy[/B]
Democracy is one of our core shared values. Among these values, the EU has entrenched freedom by adding new freedoms ? freedom for people and goods to move across its borders. We can study, work or live in another EU country with a minimum of red tape, and enjoy health and social benefits everywhere. Travel across the EU is increasingly passport-free. The EU has also laid the foundations of an area where borders are not an obstacle to justice or security.[SIZE=2]
[/SIZE] [B][SIZE=2]Prosperity[/SIZE][/B]
Citizens of the EU enjoy some of the world?s highest living standards, while enjoying some of its highest social standards. This is the European way: to balance increasing prosperity with the European social model. Combined economic strength has also brought global responsibilities, which the EU reflects in its trade and aid policies.
[B]Jobs and growth[/B]
Working together has brought a single market ? the world?s largest free trade area, a single currency shared by the majority of the EU?s citizens, and common standards of environmental protection and product safety. This has created jobs and growth and expanded our choice of competitively priced goods and services.[/quote]The text ends with the following [quote]These are unique achievements worth celebrating, but this is not just about the past. It is a unique opportunity to better understand the present and to look towards the future, to discuss what Europe we want.[/quote] So yes, what kind of Europe do we really want?
After an era of "Euroforia" with personalities like Helmut Kohl, Fran?ois Mitterand and Jacques Delors, we seem to have landed in a period of "Eurosclerosis". The European Constitution was rejected by referendum in France and Holland and the last enlargement made the average European feel like he's lost touch with the Union and the things it stands for.
Even though I've always felt more a European citizen than a Belgian, I can't really blame people for being generally sceptical about the Union right now. The last enlargment has been carried out way too fast and way too soon. Not only weren't the Institutions unprepared for it, the biggest problem imo was that the new member states, Bulgaria and Romania, weren't really logical choices in the eyes of many. We've accepted two extremely poor and "cripple" (when it comes to insitutional organisation) countries to the union and nobody seems to know what the "reason" was. In the mean time countries like Macedonia are put on hold even though they're more developed than BG and RO and not situated at the outskirts of the Union. But the most important is that the benefit of membership goes way beyond the financial side of the story. Membership and thus compliance to our directives and treaties would solve a lot of ethnic tensions in the Balkan.
But enough about what was and what could've been. What do we want the EU to be in the future? How far should the cooperation and integration go? Will the Union ever be more than a (socio) economic entity?
Imo everyone would benefit from a strong EU on the political and the military level. If we'd succeed in joining forces and setting out a common policy, the EU would become a stable superpower next to the US. Not to compete with them, but to tackle threats and challenges together.
Will that ever be possible? If you'd ask me: yes! The EU will never be a monolithic block like the States because there's too much diversity amongst its members, but the possibility to grow gradually beyond the level we're at now sure is present. I'm sure that with people like Angela Merkel in Germany, Verhofstadt in Belgium and anybody but Sarkozy in France a new step forward can be made.
After all, we owe it to ourselves: by transferring some power from the national to the European level all member states will gain influence as a collective. If we don't, we will condemn ourselves to being nothing more than a dumping site for Chinese products, Russian gas and Iranian negotiators who keep up appearances in order to buy extra time...
More info on 50 years EU (events, history, ...) [URL="http://europa.eu/50/index_en.htm"]here[/URL]