Europe at a Snail’s Pace

The European Union's experiment in supra-national government continues to face challenges from divergent national-level political and economic interests. This article in the UK's Economist says that yesterday's meeting between France's president and Germany's chancellor "sealed agreement between the two leaders on how the newly enlarged Union… will be governed. Everyone else will now be expected to fall into line—some more grudgingly than others." While the two leaders busied themselves with questions of political leadership and power-structure organization, some EU members see economic reform as the more pressing issue. To the dismay of the UK and others, tough economic reforms agreed to at a EU-wide meeting in Lisbon in 2000 have yet to be implemented in France and Germany. "Like many of their predecessors," the article says, "Mr Chirac and Mr Schröder seem more comfortable dealing with abstract constitutional issues than confronting hard economic policy challenges. Both men were enthusiastic supporters of the Lisbon process—the idea of Europe overtaking America is irresistible to many European leaders. But the driving force behind Europe’s acceptance of the need for economic change was Britain, not France or Germany." With two of Europe's largest countries reluctant to pursue non-political issues, can the EU become a viable economic unit? – YaleGlobal