Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Saturday, June 23, 2007

New EU treaty

This editorial from The Economist offers a good way to ask students whether they know enough about the EU. The follow-up stories from the BBC will make sense for students only if they have a command of the basics.

The European Union: A constitutional conundrum

"A new European treaty is acceptable only if its contents are kept to a bare minimum

"OLD treaties never die. That seems a fair conclusion to draw from the efforts being made by European Union leaders meeting at next week's summit to draw up a slimmed-down version of the draft constitution originally signed in October 2004...

"This is not because a new treaty is pressingly necessary...

"Yet Angela Merkel of Germany, holder of the rotating presidency of the EU, has made agreement on a new treaty her top priority. This reflects the frustration of the 18 countries that have endorsed the constitutional treaty (plus four more that stand ready to do so) at being stopped in their tracks by the other five...

"The draft constitution... included several desirable 'minimal' institutional changes, including a shrinkage in the size of the European Commission, one beefed-up foreign-policy post... a stronger role for national parliaments, a semi-permanent EU presidency and a reweighted system of national votes. These changes, especially a new voting system, may mean that some countries lose some clout; but they would not involve a real transfer of power from national governments as a whole to Brussels...

"By contrast there are quite a few things that “maximalists” would like to sneak into the treaty... Any extension of majority voting... would mean more power going to Brussels. The charter of fundamental rights... was never very sensible... [E]ven if its application is circumscribed, it would create new European rights that the European Court may later increase in scope...

"Eurosceptics...would also do well to accept a minimalist treaty. It would take the issue of institutional reform... off the table. It should clear the way for proper debate on the club's future enlargement... It should also lead to a thorough examination next year of the union's lopsided budget, an insane 40% of which is still wasted on farm subsidies..."

EU leaders agree on reform treaty

"European Union leaders have reached agreement in Brussels on an outline of new rules to govern the 27-member bloc.

"At dawn on Saturday they announced a compromise to delay until 2014 a new voting system that reduces Poland's influence - the main stumbling block...

"The new treaty, expected to be finalised later this year, preserves much of the planned EU constitution, which was rejected by voters in 2005..."

EU treaty good for UK, says Blair

"An agreement reached in Brussels on a new European Union treaty protects Britain's interests, Tony Blair says.

"It gives the UK an opt-out on a charter of human and social rights and keeps Britain's independent foreign policy and tax and benefit arrangements...

"He said the agreement would allow the UK to take on those parts of EU judicial and crime policy it chose to, and that the treaty would not require a referendum..."