Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
WORKERS, MAY 2007 ISSUE
No limits
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said recently, "We would be wrong to limit European construction to simple economic integration. The market and currency issues, useful and beneficial as they are in everyday life, have only ever been means, tools in the realisation of a larger objective."German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for an EU army, saying, "We must move closer to a European army ... The European Commission would become more capable of acting, within clearly defined competencies."
Meanwhile, according to a Harris poll, 44 per cent of EU citizens think life has got worse since joining the bloc, while 25 per cent think it has got better. 52 per cent of Britons said things had got worse. 41 per cent of us said life would get better if we left the EU – just 25 per cent said it would get worse.
Don't wriggle out of a referendum
A TNS poll, the first independent survey on the EU's future to be carried out in all 27 EU member states, has revealed that three in four Europeans want a referendum on any new EU treaty that gives more power to the EU. In Britain, 83 per cent want a vote to be held. Opposition to euro membership in Britain is at its highest ever: 77 per cent against.
In June, EU leaders will agree on a new mandate for an Inter-Governmental Conference that will conclude in December 2007. Member states will then have 18 months to ratify the new treaty. One official said, "The euro is an example of the importance of establish-ing timetables. Once you have the timetable, you can really get moving."
Some partnership!
By the end of this year the EU is due to replace its preferential trade arrangements with African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP) with bilateral Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Developing countries will be given a fixed timetable to drop their barriers to imports from the EU. They are being asked to eliminate 80% of their trade barriers against the EU over the next decade.
ACP countries fear that European exporters will increase their share of ACP markets.