[pp.int.general] PPI platform for EU Election 2009

[Reinier Bakels]

> Any constitution proposed by the forces in control of the EU now
> is inevitably going to be bad, because its motives will be bad.
> So the only short-term issue is how to block it.
>
> Discussions about how to write a good EU constitution are also useful,
> for the same reasons that discussion about reforming or eliminating
> the WTO are useful: in the long term, that is desirable.  But the
> proposals made by the EU are no basis for writing a good constitution.

I thnink it is slightly more complicated. The "constitution" proposal was 
original written by an international committe led by former French president 
Giscard d'Etaing. They worked in a spirit of excitedment on a European Union 
similar to the United States. But the system they eventually proposed still 
was a compromise and suffers from some serious shortcomings.The European 
Commission is not a true government, the European Parliament is more or less 
an extension of national parliaments, and the European Council, an opaque 
body of the national ministers rules the waves.

Eventually, there must be a European Union. Many member states are pretty 
small, either in number of inhabitants or in surface of both, and they need 
each other. For a younger generation, a European identity is a reality, but 
the average age is rising, and older people still strongy believe in 
national values.

In practice, imho the most serious problem is de lack of visibility of the 
EU and EU politics. Newsmedia hardly ever report about European politics (a 
checken and egg problem). It is an ideal enviroment for corporate lobbyists 
and for "policy laundering".

reinier