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2002-02-23
Our hope for the futrue growth of the metric system in the
US and the preventing American interests from expanding the inflience of FFU in
existing metric countries is heavily dependant on a strong Europe and a powerful
euro. The more countries that come under the european umbrella, the more
power the EU will have to deal with expanding American interests.
And from this article, we can see that the EU is not
sitting on its duff, but doing things to improve its ability to negotiate in its
interests and not be in a position to back down to groups like the tABD when
they bark.
John
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February 21,
2002
Briefing: the EU's
growing pains
by julian
lee
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Jack Straw, the Foreign
Secretary, today outlines his vision for the European Union as
it struggles to deal with the admission of new
member states.
- Ten new countries will join the EU within the next two
to three years, adding a further 110 million citizens to the
Union's population of 370 million. The budget for
enlargement currently stands at �24 billion.
- The EU regards enlargement as key to preventing future
conflict in Europe, but it also needs to expand its markets
for production and export. This will also help it to compete
against the might of North America and China on the global
stage.
- The European Union has promised to decide by the end of
the year which countries will be among the first to join.
Each new EU country would have to absorb more than 20,000
pieces of legislation into its national statute book before
admission.
- A first batch of countries will not be admitted until
2004 or 2005 at the earliest, and their citizens
must ratify joining by referenda. That process
could take 18 months.
- Heading the advanced pack are Poland, Hungary,
Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Estonia. Smaller countries
such as Lithuania, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus may
follow. Romania and Bulgaria also want to join, but
they are further down the list.
- Next week the Convention on the Future of Europe starts
its task of looking at ways in which the EU can reform
itself as it enlarges. The 104-man commission headed by the
former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing will meet
twice a month for the next 18 months and has the
responsibility for rewriting the EU's governing treaty by
2004.
- At the heart of the Convention will be the question of
how power is shared within the EU. Changing the voting
in the Council of Ministers, the EU's Cabinet, will be its
biggest challenge. The "big five" countries (Germany,
Britain, France, Italy and Spain) have ten votes each in the
council. Votes are allocated according to population, so
Luxembourg, a small country, has two votes.
- The large states are worried that they will be outvoted
in the Council of Ministers when the smaller states join the
EU. They want more votes to reflect their population sizes
and compensate them for the loss of any commissioners.
Should Germany, with 80 million people, have more votes than
France, with a population of 60 million?
- Money is also an issue. The biggest net
contributors of money to the EU (Germany, The Netherlands,
the UK, Sweden and Finland) do not want to see their
commitments rise after enlargement, while the biggest
recipients (Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy) are
fearful that enlargement will see their gains dwindle.
- The veto in the Council of Ministers also has
to be addressed. Decisions are hard enough to make (the EU's
dithering over the Balkans in the 1990s was a direct result
of the power of the veto being exercised) with 15 members
around the table but the prospect of 25 may make
decisiveness impossible.
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