Posted on 06/19/2005 6:41:47 AM PDT by demlosers
BRUSSELS, June 18 - Something shattered in Europe Friday night.
The leaders of the 25 European Union nations went home after a failed two-day summit meeting in anger and in shame, as domestic politics and national interests defeated lofty notions of sacrifice and solidarity for the benefit of all.
The battle over money and the shelving of the bloc's historic constitution, after the crushing no votes in France and the Netherlands, stripped away all pretense of an organization with a common vision and reflected the fears of many leaders in the face of rising popular opposition to the project called Europe.
Their attacks on one another after they failed to agree on a future budget - for 2007 through 2013 - seemed destructive and unnecessary, and it is not at all clear that they will be able to repair their relationships. Even if they do, the damage to the organization is done.
Most embarrassing for the European Union was a last-minute attempt by its 10 newest members to salvage the budget agreement late Friday night. They offered to give up some of their own aid from the union so that the older and richer members could keep theirs.
For the new members, that offer was an opportunity to prove their worth. Criticizing the "egoism" of countries driven by national interests, Prime Minister Marek Belka of Poland said, "Nobody will be able to say that for Poland, the European Union is just a pile of money."
But for the older members, it was a humiliation. "When I heard one after the other, all the new member states - each poorer than the other - say that in the interest of an agreement they would be ready to renounce part of the money they are due, I was ashamed," Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I Hate liberal Trash.
the good people of europe have proved how much smarter and wiser they are compared to their socialist dirt bag leaders
Change that to I hate white liberal trash and you hit so much on so many levels...
Somehow, it's Bush's fault. The U.S. would be better off with a successful "Europe" than a bunch of blocs in race to the bottom. (Haven't we been there twice or thrice already?) Competition is good and healthy. The EU was an attempt to place an economic moat around Europe and to rule the World from Festung Europa, an idea that once had cachet in certain European circles.
Jackie Chiraqi, down in the mud, blood and Champange!!
These people are ditz's, but watch out for "PLAN B" !!!! They are all in the Slime Bag now, and the hurt is on so they are looking for some HELP !! or MONEY. In comes the UN and it's INTERNATIONAL TAX FOR THE POOR!! PLAN B!!! Boys and girls! Even now the G-8 Summit is planning on giving the UN powers to tax us. The US Citizen under the Yoke of a Foreign government!!
Hope they get rid of that phoney euro and return to their national currencies soon.
Better to end this way than in some Euro style bloody conflict.
"...domestic politics and national interests defeated lofty notions of sacrifice and solidarity for the benefit of all."
This is the Liberal mindset in a nutshell. They're still singing from the Commie Summer Camp Songbook.
How very childish.
I care for sentimental reasons because Europe was the well spring of what we call Western values, that found its apogee in our sadly eroded Constitution. I also care because Europe had the potential to be a bulwark in defense of Western values.
By Western values, I mean things like the rule of law, the rights and value of the individual, the scientific method, the very notion and tradition of intellectual freedom.
These values and traditions are under assault even in the United States and in the institutions where they should be most cherished and protected. Judicial activism is an outright assault on the rule of law, it may be a fact of life but when institutionally encouraged it is extremely dangerous. Speech codes and political correctness are blatant assaults on the notion of intellectual freedom. The tendencies of the academic left to shout down rather than confront their adversaries is reminiscent of the universities under the Third Reich. (Excuse me, this is not a Durbinesque exaggeration.)
But I don't want to push any buttons. 8^)
Remarkable isn't it how quickly all those books touting the United States of Europe as the world's next superpower became dated.
Faster than those books that said the Japanese economy was going to beat us into the ground.
Excellent Points, all...let e-mail this "Turban" Dur-bin Hiden
Taxation is to support the regulation of commerce and the army. What is the UN doing in either commerce or the military?
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