If you read newspapers from around Europe over the last few days, you found an almost unanimous “thumbs down” on the choices for first European President and the first Foreign Affairs Secretary (it will be clear later why I use “alternative” job titles).
It is quite funny: the consensus bridges the Euro-sceptics and the Euro-nationalists.
Personally, I believe that the Euro-sceptics do not realize that the train already left the station, and now the issue is only how fast and where it will go.
As for the Euro-nationalists: do you really believe that it is possible in the XXI century to rebuild a Charlemagne-style empire?
For non-EU readers: both those who would like to see a future European Union as little more than a market, and those who would like to see the blue banner on sea, land, air- preferably also on aircraft carriers.
But you do not need to go too far back in time to see cases where a foreign government, friend and foe alike, or private companies were able to leverage on diverging interests within EU as a negotiating strategy aimed at extracting concessions.
If you read the Italian newspapers, you will see no small amount of gloating (from the right- sometimes mildly disguised) and disappointment (from the left), as everybody expected a former Prime Minister, D’Alema, to be get the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
Actually, the right says that this is the result of an internecine war within the European Socialist group, where Spain (Mr. Zapatero) and Germany (Mr. Schultz) ceased to support Italy (Mr. D’Alema) over the last nine yards.
In a typical Italian fashion, you will find also cryptic references to the negative side-effect of having Mr. D’Alema supported by the Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Berlusconi.
For non-Italians: the innuendo is that Mr. Schultz got his revenge for the time when Mr. Berlusconi made an inappropriate comment- that was shown time and again everywhere, except in Italy.
I think that recent de-localization negotiations, and the current level of the debate show that both Euro-sceptics and Euro-nationalists ignore a simple fact: the intra-EU negotiations begin now.
I worked mainly in the private sector. And there too, signing a partnership agreement does not imply that immediately everybody inside each of the contributing organizations will be happy about losing power.
The first team is the negotiating team- if bartering will be the way ahead, or if EU will carve its own role either as a traditional power or a “bridge” between the others, it is still to be seen.
If EU is the richest market with the best infrastructure and some of the most innovative companies, maybe a different model could be used to “project” force.
In the XIX century an Italian Prime Minister said: we made Italy, now it is the time to make the Italians- and one of the first steps was to create a national conscription army, shuttling young people up and down the country.
Instead of an Army, why not the “European peace service”?
Fair weather friendship
If you read newspapers from around Europe over the last few days, you found an almost unanimous “thumbs down” on the choices for first European President and the first Foreign Affairs Secretary (it will be clear later why I use “alternative” job titles).
It is quite funny: the consensus bridges the Euro-sceptics and the Euro-nationalists.
Personally, I believe that the Euro-sceptics do not realize that the train already left the station, and now the issue is only how fast and where it will go.
As for the Euro-nationalists: do you really believe that it is possible in the XXI century to rebuild a Charlemagne-style empire?
For non-EU readers: both those who would like to see a future European Union as little more than a market, and those who would like to see the blue banner on sea, land, air- preferably also on aircraft carriers.
But you do not need to go too far back in time to see cases where a foreign government, friend and foe alike, or private companies were able to leverage on diverging interests within EU as a negotiating strategy aimed at extracting concessions.
If you read the Italian newspapers, you will see no small amount of gloating (from the right- sometimes mildly disguised) and disappointment (from the left), as everybody expected a former Prime Minister, D’Alema, to be get the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
Actually, the right says that this is the result of an internecine war within the European Socialist group, where Spain (Mr. Zapatero) and Germany (Mr. Schultz) ceased to support Italy (Mr. D’Alema) over the last nine yards.
In a typical Italian fashion, you will find also cryptic references to the negative side-effect of having Mr. D’Alema supported by the Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Berlusconi.
For non-Italians: the innuendo is that Mr. Schultz got his revenge for the time when Mr. Berlusconi made an inappropriate comment- that was shown time and again everywhere, except in Italy.
I think that recent de-localization negotiations, and the current level of the debate show that both Euro-sceptics and Euro-nationalists ignore a simple fact: the intra-EU negotiations begin now.
I worked mainly in the private sector. And there too, signing a partnership agreement does not imply that immediately everybody inside each of the contributing organizations will be happy about losing power.
The first team is the negotiating team- if bartering will be the way ahead, or if EU will carve its own role either as a traditional power or a “bridge” between the others, it is still to be seen.
If EU is the richest market with the best infrastructure and some of the most innovative companies, maybe a different model could be used to “project” force.
In the XIX century an Italian Prime Minister said: we made Italy, now it is the time to make the Italians- and one of the first steps was to create a national conscription army, shuttling young people up and down the country.
Instead of an Army, why not the “European peace service”?
Tags: affairs, eu, fair, foreign, friendship, president, weather
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