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| Toward A More Perfect Union |
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The E.U. wants to be bigger, better and stronger. Will its new constitution finally make Europeans care? |
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By JAMES GRAFF |
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Posted Sunday, June 15, 2003; 14.29BST
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geert vanden wijngaert/ap
| a lot of hot air?
The draft constitution is designed to streamline the way the E.U. functions |
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Stop ignoring the E.U.!" those pleading, almost desperate words shouted out from posters that until recently were plastered throughout Sweden. They're part of the "E.U. Relay," a government-sponsored campaign that's crisscrossing the country to promote discussion about the European Union's future. But the vast majority of Swedes couldn't be bothered to talk about it. When students from Carlforsska High School in Västerås in central Sweden approached people, they would flee at the very mention of the E.U. "Many of them we almost had to chase," says Kristina Alpfält. "They were suddenly in such a hurry when they heard what we wanted to talk about."
The E.U. has been having this effect on people for roughly a half-century, but this time there's so much at stake that people really ought to pay more attention. At the end of this week, E.U. government leaders will meet for a summit in Thessaloniki, Greece, to accept a draft of united Europe's first constitution. The document has been the subject of emotional yet arcane debate for the past 16 months at a constitutional convention in Brussels, under the imperial aegis of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Giscard's draft will be considered in detail by member governments beginning next October, but the fault lines are already clear. The United Kingdom vows to continue its fight against what it sees as federalist encroachments on the prerogatives of sovereign states, while integration-minded Continentals will try to bolster Brussels against the power of national capitals. By next June, all member states are supposed to have agreed upon a constitution that puts Europe on track to a single identity — with a President and a Foreign Minister, a European Parliament whose debates matter, and a clearer sense of the E.U.'s now ill-defined responsibilities.
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Eu'ro'pho'bia [Jun. 9, 2003 ]
n A strong fear, found chiefly among the British, that giving more power to The European Union spells doom
New Europe, Old Economy [Jun. 2, 2003 ]
Poland is America's new best friend. But the country is also in deep distress
The Plan That Fell To Earth [May 5, 2003]
Giscard unfurls a new E.U. blueprint, and the smaller states see red
A Week in Hell [Mar. 24, 2003]
At the precipice of war, facing mutiny at home, Tony Blair stays cool
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