Toward A More Perfect Union

SHOULD THE E.U. BECOME A SUPERSTATE?
Some federalists would certainly like to see the E.U. evolve into a United States of Europe. According to Philippe Moreau Defarges, an analyst at the French Institute of International Relations, the E.U. is "a process and creation that has become bigger than the nations that are part of it, the skeleton for a federalist Europe." Others, already alarmed by the E.U.'s "democratic deficit," want to make sure no flesh is put on those federalist bones. "To have a democratic entity you need a democratic identity," says Ditte Staun, 26, a Danish political-science student who campaigns against the E.U. "The 15 member states don't have a common history, and we don't want our identity to be changed. This constitution is just the E.U. consolidating itself, trying to create an unstoppable process in one direction." She is convinced that most Danes agree with her, and will reject the new constitution in the referendum the Danish government has promised to hold. Staunch defenders of the nation-state see no appeal in putting power at an ever-greater distance, or in consciously giving people who speak other languages and have different interests the right to co-determine their lives. The fact is, however, that other people already do so, whether one acknowledges it or not. No European country can isolate itself from the influence of what its neighbors trade, how they treat the environment, or whether they are prone to wage war. So advocates of a federal Europe figure that placing real power in Brussels — with the ability to make common rules for all — will give Europeans certainty at home and influence abroad. But most people still fall somewhere in the middle: they aren't parochial enough to be isolationist, but don't trust Brussels enough to relinquish all control.

For that reason, the European Union will always be a mix of national and supranational powers, and the new constitution leaves largely open just how rich that mix will be. It doesn't close the door to the E.U. eventually levying its own taxes, for example, though that's not a policy that's likely to win popular support. But if Europeans had a better idea of what they were paying for — and why — people might not feel so remote from the grand project of an integrated Europe. Comparisons with the American Constitution are easily overdrawn, but the framers of the E.U.'s future would do well to remember how that document kicked off: "We, the people ..." If the politicians gathering in Thessaloniki this week wanted to get the attention of ordinary Europeans, that might have been a good place to start.