Problems within the EU.

Often, you hear the EU being touted for the things it has accomplished and never it's criticisms, at least here in America. I found this article interesting:

The Economist
The people who run the European Commission in Brussels like to believe that this golden age of peace and prosperity is directly linked to the rise of the EU. Yet this view is often contested. Peace in Europe, it is argued, could equally be credited to the presence of American troops on European soil, and prosperity to the same causes of economic growth as in the United States or Asia, such as rising productivity and increasing trade. As for freedom, the revolutions in central Europe and Spain, Portugal and Greece were not led from Brussels.

Indeed, say critics of the EU, far from promoting peace, prosperity and freedom, it now threatens all of these achievements. In Britain, for example, Eurosceptics see a direct threat to British self-government and democracy in the many laws emanating from institutions in Brussels over which the British electorate has no control. In Britain and elsewhere, critics also argue that the EU is increasingly responsible for a tide of unnecessary regulation that is engulfing the European economy. And some believe that its overweening ambition may end up causing exactly the sort of conflicts that it has been seeking to eradicate. Martin Feldstein, an eminent American economist, has argued that the launch of a single European currency could cause political tensions culminating in war.

It goes on with these remarks about further EU difficulties:

The post-war gains in European prosperity may also have begun to create their own problems. Rich countries such as Germany and France were encouraged to develop elaborate welfare states which are becoming increasingly unaffordable as populations age. Before the creation of a single EU market and a single currency, such problems could be regarded as mainly national in character. But now they can cause tensions across the Union.

Enlargement is another example of a success that makes the EU a riskier place. By increasing the diversity of political interests and views within the Union, it has made them much harder to contain within a single framework.

European federalists�the heirs to Monnet and Schuman�are well aware of these problems. Some believe that a new impetus for European unity can be provided by trying to build up the EU into a new superpower�a global force that can equal the United States. But so far any moves in that direction have served only to deepen divisions within the EU, in particular over attitudes to America.

The EU's new constitution represents another effort to preserve and deepen European unity, but it too could backfire. For the constitution to come into force, it must be approved by all 25 EU countries. At least 11 of them are likely to hold referendums, and in a few of those, notably Britain, the verdict is likely to be negative. Such an outcome could well provoke a crisis within the Union.

Whether it's the EU or the UN, putting yourself in the hands of a foreign nation does nothing but usurp your sovereignty. A nation hundreds or thousands of miles away won't be looking out for your best interests and visa versa.

theres loads of anti-EU stuff

ATS - Why does the European Union scare some people?

ATS - The Future of Europe - (my idea for new european alliances)

Okay......but after reading through those threads many points being made in this article aren't addressed in them. The US press doesn't make much mention of EU problems, and much of the articles I read from the world's press speak glowingly about the EU. Few are critical. Here on ATS, aside from the "anti-EU" threads, people use statistics of the EU to compare themselves to the US, and speak of it like it is a sovereign nation when numbers are needed to rival something the US has done or achieved.

Statements from the article stuck in my mind:

The EU's new constitution represents another effort to preserve and deepen European unity, but it too could backfire. For the constitution to come into force, it must be approved by all 25 EU countries. At least 11 of them are likely to hold referendums, and in a few of those, notably Britain, the verdict is likely to be negative. Such an outcome could well provoke a crisis within the Union.

After many criticisms of the US and its "outdated" Constitution, the grand EU can't "upgrade" its current one without major divisions.


And this one in particular:

Economically, the EU is falling further behind the United States, and can only envy the dynamism of China or India. Politically, its members have been at each other's throats over Iraq, the management of the euro and the constitution. Perhaps most dangerously of all, the EU is plagued by a lack of popular understanding and enthusiasm.

European sniping about how awful American internal policies are is rebutted with a statement like this.