"Europe at 27 is doomed to failure"
Pretty bleak stuff from former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur in today's Le Monde:
Europe at 27 is doomed to confusion and failure. It suffers from problems that the Lisbon Treaty has failed to correct. Lack of authority: the 1950s structure, with the [European] Parliament, the Commission and the European Council, being too heavy. We will witness conflicts between the Parliament-Commission duo and the European Council in the future. Lack of realism: the 4 or 5 countries representing the 2/3 or the 3/4 of Europe's population and wealth have indeed special responsibilities. Lack of coherence: the 27 member states have very different social and juridical regimes. We pay the price of an enlargement which was decided too hurriedly.So the Lisbon Treaty didn't fix all this? What a shocking revelation!
Labels: EU failure, France, Lisbon Treaty
E Balladur has long been an advocate of a Europe of concentric circles. He is simply returning to his analysis as French prime minister in the 1990s.