Where is the enthusiasm for the basic principle of a constitution for Europe?
The European Union is an institution of swiftly changing moods. No sooner, it seems, has it brought out the fireworks and massed bands to celebrate its expansion than its 25 foreign ministers are back at the negotiating table, failing – again – to agree on the draft of a European constitution. The European Union is an institution of swiftly changing moods. No sooner, it seems, has it brought out the fireworks and massed bands to celebrate its expansion than its 25 foreign ministers are back at the negotiating table, failing – again – to agree on the draft of a European constitution. In Brussels this week it was not just the small print on which they could not agree, but much of the large print as well. It appeared that we were back where we had all started before the disagreements that scuppered the draft constitution last December. Indeed, the particular dispute that was blamed for preventing agreement then – the number of votes allocated to Poland and Spain – is now almost the least
