EU at 50: A time to celebrate and reflect

By Shada Islam and Leon Mangasarian Mar 25, 2007, 15:31 GMT

Brussels/Berlin - The European Union marks its 50th birthday this month having spectacularly exceeded goals set by its six founding nations but facing a crisis of confidence due to a failed constitution and doubts over further enlargement.

The now 27-member EU with almost 500 million people was created as the European Economic Community (EEC) under the Treaty of Rome by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany on March 25, 1957.

Built on the ruins of World War II, the EU was established largely to prevent another war between Germany and France by forging strong economic bonds between the two nations. France and Germany fought three wars between 1870 and 1945.

'The European unification idea came from the realisation that Europe's nation-states would - if left on their own - never break out of the vicious circle of war and destruction,' said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a recent speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Starting with the 1951 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), post-war leaders in Western Europe created an array of joint institutions designed to draw their countries into an ever-closer economic and political union.

As a result, the idea of war between Berlin and Paris is unthinkable.

Battles between the two countries in today's Europe are limited to tussles over such things as which nation gets which factories to build parts of the new Airbus A350 jet.

The two EU heavyweights are widely recognized as the 'motors' behind the bloc's rapid development over the last half-century.

To mark the special relationship, Merkel, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, made a point of inviting French President Jacques Chirac alone to the glittering opening last month of Germany's version of the US presidential retreat Camp David - the restored 18th century Prussian Meseberg Palace.

With Germany and France in the vanguard, the EU has broken down national trade barriers to create a single market, and agreed to the free cross-border movement of EU citizens who are generally allowed to work and live in any country in the bloc.

Another landmark agreement was the creation of the euro single currency in 2002. So far 13 EU states have replaced their old national currencies with the euro.

At the same time, subsidies for farmers and regional and infrastructure development aid for poorer parts of the EU have helped bridge the divide between the bloc's rich and poor nations.

Since the 1970s, internal developments have gone hand-in-hand with EU enlargement. Bulgaria and Romania were admitted on January 1, 2007 in the EU's most recent expansion. Before that in May 2004, a historic 'big-bang' expansion saw the entry of 10 countries from Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

The open door policy has run into trouble, however.

The new members have not been universally welcomed by the older EU states and the door to further enlargement beyond Croatia appears to be closing, even though Merkel insists the western Balkans states must be given what she vaguely terms 'a European perspective.'

The cliched image of thousands of cheaper Polish plumbers flooding into France and driving domestic plumbers out of work has fuelled what is dubbed EU 'enlargement fatigue.'

Polls show there is little appetite for further expansion with strong opposition in countries like Germany to admitting Turkey which began EU membership talks last year.

Chancellor Merkel and most of her Christian Democrats oppose EU accession for mainly Muslim Turkey with a population of 70 million. Merkel says Ankara should instead get a 'privileged partnership' granting sub-membership status.

Enlargement is not the only area causing headaches at the EU's 50th birthday party.

The rejection of the bloc's constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 pitched the entire European project into crisis. All 27 EU members must approve the treaty for it to enter into force.

So far nobody has come up with any concrete ideas about how to get France and the Netherlands back on board.

Leading French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy suggests a slimmed down mini-treaty. His socialist rival Segolene Royal wants to add more social protection into the constitution.

Meanwhile the new Dutch government has decided to delay any decision on holding a new EU constitutional referendum until a revamped version of the treaty is decided by leaders.

Merkel had vowed to use Germany's EU presidency - which lasts through June - to make a big push for the old constitution text.

But recognising that little can be achieved until Paris and The Hague decide what they want, the German leader is now only talking about setting a constitution timetable.

With question marks over enlargement and the constitution likely to remain during the coming years, the era of grand visions which shaped the bloc during the 1980s and 1990s appears to be over.

Eberhard Sandschneider, head of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin, says the EU resembles a marathon runner who suddenly realises he ran too fast over the last 10 kilometres.

'A short pause after all the big projects would not be a bad thing in order to cope with their impact,' he says.