: EUROPE'S ZERO HOUR
When reading through these reports we see that only few of the current European leaders really recognize the actual issue. Here are two reports. The first by Spiegel online on Joschka Fischer and his new plan. Some of what he says is true, but his conclusions in my opinion are not correct. This is why Schroeder might have to run for office without a coalition. And below Fischer and his views on the future of Europe, the report on yesterday evening s meeting between Chirac and Schroeder.
German Foreign Minister Fischer Has a Plan
Is Europe in a crisis? No, says German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the EU is not about to collapse. He says it's time for the electorate to vote on Europe-wide candidates running on Europe-wide issues. But it won't be easy. "You have to deal with the resistance of centuries," he says.
AP
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer spoke at the American Academy in Berlin on Thursday evening.
Following the failed European constitution referenda in both France and Holland this week, people across the continent are wondering, "What next for the EU?" Concrete proposals are, for the moment, few and far between. But on Thursday evening at the American Academy, located on the beautiful shores of Lake Wannsee in Berlin, German Foreign Minister and EU cheerleader Joschka Fischer, offered his thoughts on the meaning of the No votes and his ideas for a possible way forward. Business as usual, he says, is not an option. Here, a few excerpts from his comments:
On the failure of the referendum in France:
"Definitely it's a setback.... If you look to the reasons for the setback (it is clear that) there is a gap between the traditional nation states and the project of European development. Europe wasn't founded by a democratic revolution. Rather Europe was based on the experience of terrible wars and on the collapse of the old European system. And it was based on the ideas and the policies of the political elites.
"If you look to the decision in France, it was mostly about domestic policies. And if you look to the agenda of the No vote, it's caught in a direct contradiction because essentially the No vote defended the Treaty of Nice.... But it was more about emotional (factors) -- and I don't mean irrational; a lot of these emotions are very rational. But this fear is a combination of social issues -- the fear of personal deprivation..., the fear of job loss via the threat to the labor market from the outside -- and it is not driven by enlargement policy. Rather, it is the result of (the collapse of communism in 1989) and the economic upheaval that followed."
On a possible way forward:
"In the mid-term perspective I'm quite optimistic. The big question is how can you fill the gap.... It must be filled by political structures.... The real positive and new experience in the French campaign was that it was a European campaign.... The French (referendum) campaign was the first time that I was really campaigning for Europe.
"And such a model (of campaigning for Europe) can work. This would mean that the next time the European Parliament is up for election, we have to raise issues not on a national level, but we have to form Europe-wide platforms created by European-wide parties. And we have to run with candidates representing not national programs, but European programs. I am not talking about a pie-in-the-sky European program with nice ideas that nobody is really interested in. But they have to have a substance. What about social justice in the European Union? What about the free market? What does it mean in France, in Germany, in Poland, in Lithuania, in Slovenia, in Portugal? And then (we have to) present candidates for the job for the president of the Commission and they must run for that position. Without that, I don't believe we can really bridge the gap between the project of the elites and the reality of the people."
On the difficulties faced by the European project:
Spiegel English version
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,358905,00.html
Chirac meets Schroeder
BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- In their first meeting since French and Dutch voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac have urged the continuation of the constitutional ratification process.
The two leaders, whose countries have been a main force behind building the EU, said they did not want to "abandon the European idea, but to resolve the problems" that caused voters to reject the constitution in the past week, Schroeder spokesman Bela Anda told a briefing.
CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/06/04/germany.france/index.html
Ce devait être, selon le journal britannique Times "l'axe des perdants", soit la rencontre de deux dirigeants affaiblis, l'un par le non française au référendum constitutionnel, l'autre par une crise allemande qui pourrait lui coûter son siège aux élections de septembre. Aussi Gerhard Schröder, et son épouse Doris, ont-ils fait un accueil chaleureux à Jacques Chirac, samedi 4 juin à Berlin, tous rivalisant de sourires.
"Ce dîner a permis de souligner la cohésion, l'entente et l'unité de l'Allemagne et de la France au service de la construction européenne", a affirmé le porte-parole de l'Elysée, Jérôme Bonnafont. MM. Chirac et Schröder ont pu préparer des "initiatives communes" en particulier sur les perspectives financières de l'UE, a complété le porte-parole allemand, Bela Anda.
"ESPRIT DE RASSEMBLEMENT"
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3214,36-658583@51-656092,0.html
LeMonde
Schroeder will ask the confidence motion in the German parliament - Bundestag - in a few weeks and then there will be general elections in Germany, probably on Sunday, September 18th.
Looks like Chirac is giving Schroeder strength for direct action.
