Blair returning serve
Quo Vadis, Europe? | Europe | Deutsche Welle | — So the logic here is that Britain is the bad guy because Blair wants what is best for the people he governs instead of what is best for Europe as a whole — even though it’s actually impossible to know what is best for Europe as a whole unless you can see into the future.
If the EU cannot survive unless the members refuse to represent their constituencies, but instead represent some idealized European whole, then it cannot survive. This is Utopian thinking.
What politicians can get away with telling the people who voted for then that they are not going to act in their constituents best interests but instead the interests of some group of people far away? It’s unbelieveable.
The failure to agree on a budget has exposed differences over the EU’s future. Britain, which has been blamed for the crisis, cannot force its path on others, said Austria’s Schüssel who inherits the presidency in 2006.
Following the collapse of the European Union summit over a bitter budget dispute, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüsseltook British Prime Minister Tony Blair to task for putting national interests above those of the 25-member bloc. Britain, which insisted on retaining its five-billion euro rebate despite opposition from the other 24 member states, has been widely criticized for torpedoing the 2007-2013 budget compromise.
Speaking in an interview with Germany’s public broadcaster ARD, Schüssel acknowledged that Britain was not the only country to veto the proposed budget. But Blair’s stubborn refusal to yield on the issue of Britain’s paybacks unless changes were made to extensive –and in his opinion overly inflated — agricultural subsidies has set a negative precedent for future negotiations in which each member state thinks only of itself. Schüssel, whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency on Jan. 1, 2006, following Britain’s stint during the second half of 2005, warned that London cannot continue to “force its path on others.” Otherwise, there is a real danger that each member state will only fight for itself, and the concept of a united Europe will be left on the wayside.
“So the logic here is that Britain is the bad guy because Blair wants what is best for the people he governs instead of what is best for Europe as a whole”
It is not like Britain (or in this case Blair) is the bad guy. Europe can only function if its members can come to an agreement. It is very hard to find an agreement when there are members in the group with special treatment for decades.
The problem is that Britain never saw EU as a unifing force but only a mean to have more international and economical advantages… Sometimes I really think Britain should secced from EU.
You mean like “bringing democracy to the Middle East”?
…’ they are not going to act in their constituents best interests but instead the interests of some group of people far away’…
The best interests of the constituents are, in the end, the best interests of Europe. All peoples in Europe believe that, the idea of a united (not unified) Europe, so it’s not a hard sell. The hard sell is the politicians games, of favouring one group while screwing another.
In Portugal this has happened bigtime. We basically sold away our fishing industry (among others) for next to nothing, while Spain developed theirs. The only thing that came out of it was big money for the politicians who sold our country. It’s not that I’m against Spain developing their fishing industry – it’s just that Portugal should develop that in which it was strong – fishing, textiles, cork, olive oil, instead of selling out *everything*. We have no industry to speak of now.
*That’s* the issue, corruption, greed, incompetence – on the part of politicians and big business. Not the idea of a united Europe. We all want that. Even if that means favouring some poor countries farmers the other side of Europe – not big fat farmers in a filthy rich country. Yes, that IS difficult to achieve, and it’s for doing that job that we pay king’s ransoms to our politicians!
French voters saved Tony Blair. He appeared ready to sign on to the Constitution without a vote, then maybe a tough embarrassing vote, and now he doesn’t have to do any of that, and can stand up for Britain instead.