Former European Commissioner Günter Verheugen, whose 10 years in office ended Tuesday, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about EU-US relations, the prospect of a common EU military and the union's lack of vision. SPIEGEL ONLINE: The new European Commission was approved Tuesday, thereby ending your 10 years as a commissioner in Brussels. Is the EU still an alliance of nations on the way to an ever-closer union, or is it just a bigger club with the same old problems? Günter Verheugen: With the 27 members that it has today, compared to the 15 that it had back then, the EU has obviously changed dramatically. We have achieved much in those 10 years, but a few fundamental questions remain open: There seems to be no vision within the Union of where we are heading. There is no consensus over where the borders of the EU should lie in the future, and there is no consensus over how we should define our role in the world.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The new European Commission was approved Tuesday, thereby ending your 10 years as a commissioner in Brussels. Is the EU still an alliance of nations on the way to an ever-closer union, or is it just a bigger club with the same old problems?
Günter Verheugen: With the 27 members that it has today, compared to the 15 that it had back then, the EU has obviously changed dramatically. We have achieved much in those 10 years, but a few fundamental questions remain open: There seems to be no vision within the Union of where we are heading. There is no consensus over where the borders of the EU should lie in the future, and there is no consensus over how we should define our role in the world.
More like [inconvenient truth™ alert]? En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
I do care that the EU is not living up to the expectations set by Delors. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
I think it is realistic to imagine a pan-European common market that includes the entire continent and also our Mediterranean neighbors. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you trying to make us really afraid now? Verheugen: On the contrary, I am thinking of your future. We are already in direct competition with economies such as China and India and in the near future Latin America. They are all much bigger than us and are continuing to grow dramatically. If we want to be competitive, we will need a larger European market. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Together with Russia? Verheugen: Absolutely.
I think it is realistic to imagine a pan-European common market that includes the entire continent and also our Mediterranean neighbors.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you trying to make us really afraid now?
Verheugen: On the contrary, I am thinking of your future. We are already in direct competition with economies such as China and India and in the near future Latin America. They are all much bigger than us and are continuing to grow dramatically. If we want to be competitive, we will need a larger European market.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Together with Russia?
Verheugen: Absolutely.
WTF?
They are afraid of a pan-European market? En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
could work i guess...
with big enough solar sahara projects.
ultimately they will want to run their own white goods/armaments businesses, after they suss the intellectual property and 'management methods'.
in a perfect world, everyone gets a solar fridge and we move towards economic parity with our perennially impoverished (by euro standards) southern neighbours, who then don't die trying to boat across to mythical streets of gold.
how can we help people understand it's in their interest to spread the wealth? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
