The European union is the third-largest governing institution in the world. Its 455 million citizens are spread out over a landmass that is half the size of the continental United States. In the course of the next 2 years, its people will ratify a constitution, pledgeing their lives and fortunes, and tying their personal and collective destiny to its political success.
What is Europe?
All in all , the EU is a remarkable feat, especially when one stops to reflect on the fact that even its architects are unsure of exactly what the EU represents. The problem is that there has never been any governing institution like the EU.
It is not a state, even though it acts like one. Its laws supercede the laws of the twenty- five nations that make it up and are binding. It has a single currency-the Euro-that is used by many of its members. It regulates commerce and trade and coordinates energy, transportation, communications, and increasingly, education across the many national borders that make it up.
Its citizens all enjoy a common EU passport. It has a European Parliament, which makes laws, and a European Court, whose judicial decisions are binding on member countries and the citizens of the EU. And it has a president and a military force. In many of the most important particulars that make up a state, the EU qualifies. Yet, it cannot tax its citizens, and its member states still enjoy a veto on any decision that might commit their troops to be employed.
Most important of all, the EU is not a territory-bound entity. Although it coordinates and regulates activity that takes place within the territorial boundries of its nation-state members, it has no claim to territory and is, in fact, an extra-territorial governing institution. This is what makes the EU unique.
Nation-states are geographically defined governing institutions that control specific territory. Even dynasties and empires claimed ultimate control over the territory of their subject kingdoms. The only faint historical parallel to the EU is the Holy Roman Empire of the 8th to the early nineteenth centuries. In that period, the Vatican claimed ultimate sovereignty over the principalities, city-states, and kingdoms of much of western and northern Europe.
In reality, the Holy see's actual influence over territory-related matters was more moral and ethical than enforceable. The member states of the European Union still control the territory they represent, but their absolute power over geography has been steadily eroded by EU legislative encroachments.
For example, the Schengen Agreement, an EU agreement forged in 1985, gives the European Union the power to create a Europe -wide set of rules governing immigration into the EU, and even includes a European police force to protect the EU's members' borders. The individual states, however still retain the right to decide how mant immigrants to allow into their country and to designate which countries outside the EU they can emigrate from.
Because the EU itself is not bound by territorial constraints, it can continue to bring new states under its umbrella. Indeed, the eU's criteria for membership is value-based rather than geographically conditioned. In theory, any country can apply for membership and, if it fulfills the qualificatiions, be admitted into the union. The open-ended and inclusive nature of this new kind of governing institution has caused concern among existing members and tentions among prospective candidate nations.
Some argue that even though membership is value-based, it ought to be limited only to those countries that make up historical Europe. he problem is, historians disagree as to exactly what constitutes historical Europe. Geographers say there is no such thing as the European continent. Yet others argue that Europe begins at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and extends across europe into Russia and even to Turkey to the southeast. Is Russia part of Europe or Asia? Is Turkey part of Europe or the Mideast? Recall, the ottman Empire controlled parts of europe at various times. So is Europe part of the Mideast?
Where, then does the European Union end? No one knows. EU observers use the term "variable geometry" to encompass all of the possible combinations that might make up this new governing experiment. If it's hard to grasp exactly what the EU is, it is because it is continuously metamorphosing into new forms as it adjusts to fast-moving new realities. The EU is , in actuality, the first really post-modern governing institution.
Like Daniel says this EU will devour the whole world thru peace agreements.
Daniel 2:33,39-43
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Daniel 7:7-8,23-25
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
'New thoughts' from Austria as it takes EU helm
By James Kanter International Herald Tribune
MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2006
Vienna : Austria is to revive the moribund European constitution and will promote expansion of the European Union, but it will also raise a critical voice on issues like the involvement of European institutions in the domestic affairs of the 25 member states, according to Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, whose country took over the six-month rotating EU presidency on Sunday.
Following months of bitter contention over the Union's direction, Schüssel, 60, said Europe needed "some moments of fantasy and flexibility and new thoughts." He said he would restart efforts to draft a new constitution at an EU conference on European identity to be held in Salzburg in late January. In an interview at his office at the chancellery, Schüssel was generally upbeat about Europe's prospects. But he warned that Turkey might never become a full member of the EU and said that the services directive, a bill making it easier for European workers and companies to offer services abroad, should be probably be scrapped and rewritten.
"We shouldn't wait too long to revive the debate on the European future," Schüssel said. He said he aimed to have a timetable and road map for ratification of a new European constitution ready by mid-2006, when Austria hands over the EU presidency to Finland. French and Dutch voters rejected the previous constitution in referendums last spring, effectively killing its chances of ratification. The dense and lengthy document had been drafted by about 100 European notables headed by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president.
Schüssel called that process elitist and anachronistic, declaring, "I want to avoid a top-down approach." This time, he said, a broad spectrum of citizens including scientists, journalists and professors should contribute ideas for a new constitution. "We should really now start again with a real European debate," he said in the interview Friday, adding that a new document could possibly be ratified in tandem with European parliamentary elections in 2009.
Although much of the current unhappiness about the EU appears to stem from the latest round of expansion, from 15 to 25 members, in May 2004, Schüssel said he would push plans to add another four members quickly. Romania and Bulgaria should be able to join by 2007, or 2008 at the latest, he said, while membership for Croatia and Macedonia should follow soon after.
The European Commission, the EU executive, is expected to announce in the coming months whether Romania and Bulgaria have made the grade. Bulgaria in particular has "made enormous progress in fights against organized crime," Schüssel said.
Regarding Turkey, which opened EU membership talks in October, Schüssel said it deserved to be a candidate even though the outcome of negotiations toward full membership remained uncertain. "The end must be open," he said. This is the second time Austria has held the EU presidency since the country of eight million joined the EU in 1995.
Schüssel, who has led the center-right People's Party for a decade, said the timing was felicitous because it coincided with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud, both born in present-day Austria.
The anniversaries, he said, could serve as "a hook to make visible that Europe is not only one identity, but that European identity consists of a great variety of sounds, images, thoughts, poems, languages, cultures - even smells, when you think about all those varieties of cooking."
In addition to the focus on identity, Schüssel said, a key event of the Austrian presidency will be a conference in April, in the northern Austrian town of Saint Poelten, on the principle of "subsidiarity" - EU jargon for allowing member states to keep rule-making under local control where possible. Even as Europeans integrate their economies, it remains critical to respect national sovereignty, Schüssel said.
"There are some tendencies within the European Union that can be seen with critical eyes," he said, notably "an extension of communitarian law by the European court. The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice is similar to the U.S. Supreme Court in the way it decides how to apply federal-style laws. A recent decision by EU judges to force national treasuries to reimburse companies for tax losses outside their home countries was among a series of "backdoor decisions of the European court" that Schüssel said served to extend EU law without politicians' prior agreement.
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