End of EU?

The recent elections in Europe for the European Parliament have exposed some huge cracks in the supposedly united Europe. The elections were supposed to be the largest transnational elections ever, but instead of confirming a united Europe, they instead showed how many euro-skeptics there really are. As Scott Norvell points out, many of the new parliamentarians are going there with the express purpose of undermining the system.

The outcome couldn't have come at a worse time for Euro-lovers. Even as the last votes were being tallied Sunday, foreign ministers were jetting off to Brussels to try and finalize a constitution for the bloc. They had hoped to have an agreement ironed out by the time heads of state from all 25 members of the union gathered on Thursday and Friday.

Now, the constitution may have to wait while they chew on the possibility that people in Krakow and Riga don't necessarily share Jacques Chirac's ideal of forcing 35-hour workweeks on everyone and spending those extra five hours coddling Middle Eastern dictators.
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What's most astounding about the exercise is that even as Kilroy and company were plotting their sabotage, the people who should have been paying heed to the vote still failed to notice the truck barreling toward them.

In a dispatch from Brussels Monday afternoon, Reuters relayed the argument of the European Commission -- the EU's executive body -- that the Parliament didn't have enough power, and that's why people voted the way they did.

Yea. That's right. That's the answer.

It seems to me that the EU, as anything more than a free-trade zone, was doomed to failure from the very beginning. It is impossible to create a common economic policy for countries that are so economically different. It didn't help that Germany and France decided to violate the very rules that they created by going over the spending limits, while trying to penalize the smaller countries for doing the same. And if economic integration is difficult, attempting political integration of 25 countries with very distinctive histories and often strong nationalisms is absurd.

So the question is where does Europe go from here? Most likely the economic integration will continue, though at a slower pace as England is far less likely now to join the Euro. Political integration has now been made even more difficult than it already was. And it seems that a political arrangement that was initially created by the US to keep France and Germany from fighting, will be doomed by the arrogance of an allied France and Germany.