BRUSSELS -- The last time European leaders met in Rome to sign an EU treaty, in 1957, there were just six members of the bloc -- France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands -- and most of the continent was poor, unfree and war-scarred. Portugal and Spain were ruled by military dictators, democracy was shaky in Greece, allied troops had only just left Austria, Germany was divided into east and west, three of the EU's current members -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- were part of the Soviet Union, and five other states that joined the EU in May -- Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic -- lay behind the Iron Curtain.
On Friday, almost half a century after the European Economic Community's founding text was agreed, the heads of state of 25 rich, free and peaceful countries met in the Italian capital to ink the club's first constitution. The leaders of future EU states Croatia (which was at war just a decade ago), Bulgaria and Romania (communist kleptocracies until the late 1980s) and Turkey (a predominantly Muslim country that borders Iraq and Syria) also signed the blueprint in the same renaissance hall the original treaty was signed.
"Never in its history has Europe come this close to being 'whole and free,'" writes British historian Timothy Garton Ash in his new book "Free World.""If that's not a story to be proud of, what is?" The European Union often gives the impression of having institutions and policies more suited to six than 25 members, of accepting low growth and high unemployment as the price to pay for generous welfare states, of failing to speak with one voice on the world stage and of perpetually lurching from crisis to crisis. Even the signing of the new EU rulebook in Rome was partly overshadowed by the failure of incoming European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to win the backing of EU legislators for his executive team Wednesday.
It is also easy find fault with the constitution that was agreed by EU leaders in June after two years of unseemly haggling. At over 150 pages long, it is hardly the sort of document citizens can "fit in their back pocket" as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw once hoped. It is highly unlikely to last a "few generations," as Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern predicted after the deal was struck. And it certainly has none of the elegance, clarity or conciseness of the United States Constitution. "We the peoples of Europe..." it most definitely is not.
Inevitably for a bloc of 25 states with different languages, histories, cultures and legal traditions, the constitution is a messy, cut-and-paste compromise that has left no one entirely happy. Criticized by federalists for lacking ambition and Euro-skeptics for creating a European super-state, it will face a double-pronged assault when put to EU voters in a series of referenda starting early next year. But it would be wrong to write off this rulebook for an enlarged Europe of 450 million citizens, because the text inked by EU leaders Friday goes a long way toward making the Union more democratic, more transparent and more efficient -- the three goals heads of state set themselves when they kicked off talks in December 2001.
If ratified by parliaments and electorates, the constitution will replace the absurd current system of rotating six-month presidencies with an EU president chosen for up to five years. A foreign minister will help the bloc play a more muscular role in international relations and avoid the splits over Iraq that almost tore the Union apart last year. Greater powers will be handed to both the EU assembly and national parliaments, bringing more democracy to an organization widely seen as lacking legitimacy. The commission will be slimmed-down to prevent it becoming a mini-parliament with more posts than tasks. Majority voting will become the normal way of decision-making, preventing single states from blocking progress. Finally, the constitution commits governments to hold meetings of European ministers in public, lifting the veil of secrecy that has shrouded EU decision making for too long.
"This treaty has the potential to make Europe stronger at home and abroad," said Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal faction in the EU parliament. "However, it needs more than official signatures; it needs wide popular support. Europe's governments must make sure they deliver it."
Page 2 of 2
In most EU states, the ratification of the blueprint will be a formality. But in Britain, the country most likely to vote "no," the government faces an uphill task persuading a deeply skeptical electorate the text is needed. Prime Minister Tony Blair's first challenge is to combat the lies spread about the constitution by jingoistic, foreign-owned newspapers.
When the document was agreed in June 2003, Britain's best-selling paper, The Sun, splashed with the headline "Save our country." With the Union Jack as a backdrop, it cried: "1588 -- WE SAW OFF THE SPANISH (picture of Queen Elizabeth I), 1805 -- WE SAW OFF THE FRENCH (etching of Nelson), 1940 -- WE SAW OFF THE GERMANS (photo of Churchill), 2003 -- BLAIR SURRENDERS BRITAIN TO EUROPE" (snap of the prime minister.)
The British are a rational, mild-mannered people, but when it comes to Europe -- or when right-wing English journalists come to writing about Europe -- they seem to take collective leave of their senses. The constitution contains nothing that threatens British national identity, and the idea that by signing it 1,000 years of British sovereignty will be snuffed out is, quite frankly, risible.
The little Englanders' attitude to Europe reminds one of the famous Monty Python sketch about the Romans. "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" asks Reg in "Life of Brian."
So what has Brussels ever done for Europeans? "Nothing" -- except for guaranteeing half a century of peace and prosperity, passport-free travel, cleaner air and water, cheaper cars, flights and energy bills, the right to live and work anywhere in Europe and greater clout in world affairs.
