EU IN 2027

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Aftershocks keep quake-hit Japan on edge . 3-The Nation's Weather. 4-Iraqi Police Foil Chlorine Dirty Bomb Attack in Ramadi. 5-Pope criticises EU for excluding Christianity. 6-Hundreds of Activists Unfurl Israeli Flag at Homesh. 7-Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human. 8-Merkel seeks treaty giving EU more powers by 2009. 9-We had no time to philosophise about this revolution. 10-The EU in 2027.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Tue Mar 27 12:00 AM EDT

MAR 26,07
MAP 4.3 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 5.2 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 5.4 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 5.2 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.9 SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
MAP 4.8 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.7 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.6 GUAM REGION
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE COAST OF SOUTHERN PERU

MAR 25,07
MAP 2.7 OREGON
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.5 VANUATU
MAP 5.2 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.5 GREECE
MAP 3.7 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 5.7 GREECE
MAP 4.7 CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.1 VANUATU
MAP 5.5 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.8 NORTHERN COLOMBIA
MAP 2.7 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.8 CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA
MAP 6.0 VANUATU
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 6.7 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 7.2 VANUATU
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Aftershocks keep quake-hit Japan on edge By Issey Kato
Mon Mar 26, 5:46 AM ET

WAJIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Aftershocks kept residents of central Japan on edge on Monday, more than a day after a strong earthquake that killed one person, injured about 200 and flattened homes.

Sunday's 6.9 magnitude quake, which struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km (190 miles) west of Tokyo, destroyed houses, buckled roads and cut off water and electricity supplies to thousands of homes.A 5.3 magnitude tremor, one of more than 200 aftershocks, struck early on Monday, and a 4.4 magnitude quake jolted the area in the early evening, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.Officials warned that more could occur.About 2,600 people spent the night in evacuation shelters and many were set to do so again on Monday.

The aftershocks kept me awake and I only slept about an hour, said Yoko Yamashita, 60, who spent Sunday night in a shelter in the hard-hit rural city of Wajima.About 5,600 households lacked tap water in Ishikawa on Monday afternoon and drinking water was being distributed.I wanted water to clean my face and wash the rice (before cooking), but there wasn't enough, Yamashita said.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary panel in Tokyo that 68 houses, many of them old wooden structures with heavy tile roofs, had been destroyed and another 164 badly damaged.The government's disaster agency put the total number of damaged houses at 564.An emergency relief team of firefighters that had been searching the rubble of collapsed houses confirmed that no one was trapped, an Ishikawa prefecture official said.Shogoro Hashimura, 81, hid under a table at the office of his sawmill in Wajima when Sunday's quake struck.When I looked outside, my truck was trapped under the rubble
and woodchips and lumber were strewn all over, he said.

EARLY WARNING

The plight of Wajima's elderly highlights the vulnerability of Japan's aging population when disasters strike.I'm worried because there aren't many young people in this neighborhood and I don't know how I'll cope with this mess, said 76-year-old Kazuko Kakuda, who had returned from an evacuation center with her husband Tsunetaro, 77, to try to clean up the toppled furniture and broken dishes in their home.The Meteorological Agency, using an early warning system that detects smaller tremors before a main quake hits, issued a tsunami alert on Sunday about 100 seconds after the quake, about two minutes faster than previously.The tsunami warning was lifted the same day after small waves hit some areas. The agency was also able to send an emergency earthquake flash to monitors about 50 km (30 miles) from the focus about five seconds before the strong quake rattled the region.

But hard-hit Wajima failed to receive the warning before the tremor struck because it was too close to the focus. The agency plans to use the system, in place for tsunami warnings to a limited number of subscribers since October, for earthquake announcements starting later this year.

Electricity was restored to most homes after outages on Sunday affected around 160,000 households, Noto airport on the peninsula reopened after cracks on the runway were repaired, and train services were back to normal, officials and media said. Earthquakes are common in Japan, which accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. (Additional reporting by Toshi Maeda in Wajima, and Teruaki Ueno and Linda Sieg in Tokyo)

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Mon Mar 26, 5:41 AM ET

Storms raked the Pacific Northwest, eastern Great Lakes and Northeast early Monday, while thunderclouds swirled over Texas and mild temperatures held in the Southeast. Scattered rain showers and isolated thunderstorms were forecast across the Great Lakes, Northeast and portions of the northern mid-Atlantic region.High pressure was to keep skies mostly clear across the southern Ohio Valley, much of the Tennessee Valley, the remainder of the mid-Atlantic region, the Southeast and Florida.

The greatest threat for severe thunderstorms was across Texas, where a low pressure
system slowly gliding across the southern U.S. was to bring another day of wet weather gusty winds and hail.A Pacific storm was forecast to slam into the California and Oregon coast, bringing moderate to heavy rain north of Southern California.Highs will be in the mid 40s to upper 60s across the Northeast, and the upper 50s to low 80s in the mid-Atlantic states; the upper 60s to upper 70s in the
southern Plains; and the 40s to lower 60s for the Pacific Northwest.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Sunday ranged from a low of 10 degrees at Presque Isle, Maine, to a high of 95 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 and there shall be famines, and pestilences,(DISEASES AND CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL
WEAPONS) and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Iraqi Police Foil Chlorine Dirty Bomb Attack in Ramadi
By VOA News 25 March 2007

The U.S. military says Iraqi authorities have foiled a suicide chemical bomb attack in the western city of Ramadi.

A statement issued Sunday says Iraqi police detained a suicide bomber Friday, before he could detonate two tons of explosives aboard his truck that was also loaded with nearly 20,000 liters of chlorine. U.S. officials say the truck was stopped near a police station about 150 meters from a water treatment plant in the predominantly Sunni city. Insurgents have carried out seven chlorine bomb attacks in Iraq this year. Meanwhile, Iraqi police said Sunday gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad. Officials say at least two people were wounded. Mosques are frequent targets of attack in Iraq were sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite muslims has become commonplace.

On Saturday, a series of suicide bombings in Iraq killed at least 47 people, many of them Iraqi policemen.Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters

IT HAS TO BE GODLESS THE, EU TO FULFILL PROPHECY, THATS WHY NO MENTION OF GOD IN THE CONSTITUTION, THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR BLASPHEMS GOD AND EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND CLAIMS TO BE GOD HIMSELF AND GETS AWAY WITH IT, THATS WHY THE EU HAS TO BE GODLESS AT THIS TIME IN HISTORY.

REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU
DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.

WAY TO GO POPE BENEDICT FOR COMING AGAINST IT, THE GODLESSNESS OF THE EU. THIS POPE IS A TRUE GOSPEL PREACHER, BUT WAIT TILL HE RETIRES A GODLESS POPE ALSO COMES ON THE SCENE. TO LEAD A ONE WORLD RELIGION AND PROMOTES THE GODLESS EU DICTATOR IN THE FUTURE.

Pope criticises EU for excluding Christianity
Web posted at: 3/25/2007 4:10:35 REUTERS

vatican city - Pope Benedict strongly criticised the European Union yesterday for excluding a mention of God and Europe's Christian roots in declarations marking the 50th anniversary of its founding.

In a toughly-worded speech to European bishops, Benedict said Europe was committing a form of apostasy of itself and was thus doubting its own identity. The Pope, who like his predecessor John Paul often calls for a mention of God and Christianity in the European Constitution, said leaders could not exclude values that helped forge the very soul of the continent. If on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome the governments of the union want to get closer to their citizens, how can they exclude an element as essential to the identity of Europe as Christianity, in which the vast majority of its people continue to identify, he said.

It is no surprise that today's Europe, while it purports to be a community of values, seems to increasingly contest the existence of absolute and universal values, he said. Does not this unique form of apostasy of itself, even before God, lead it (Europe) to doubt its very identity?

Apostasy is a total desertion of or departure from one's religion.

One of the Pope's compatriots, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, aims to relaunch the EU constitution and last month made a plea for the bloc to include references to Christian roots. Plans to include such a reference in the original EU treaty, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, were blocked by French President Jacques Chirac. Merkel, as holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is now in the process of reviving the constitution. Comments from Merkel, the daughter of a pastor, have encouraged religious leaders around Europe to redouble efforts to modify the constitution.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi also said he had pushed for inclusion of Catholic roots in the European Constitution, but that the main task ahead for Catholics was to carry on a dialogue with religions like Islam and Judaism. I fought silently and for long for the insertion of Christian roots in the European Constitution, Prodi said on Saturday.

In his address to the European bishops, Pope Benedict said the European Union was headed up a slippery slope of indifference if it did not recognise religion and God. A community that builds itself without respecting the true dignity of the human being, forgetting that each person is created in the image of God, ends up doing good for no one, he said. He called for a realistic but not cynical Europe and said the continent's leaders could not deny it had a historical, cultural and moral identity that Christianity helped forge.

Hundreds of Activists Unfurl Israeli Flag at Homesh
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAR 26,07

Hundreds of young activists, and some of their families, have arrived at the site of the destroyed Samaria community of Homesh- unfurling an Israeli flag at the site for the first time in a year and a half.

Hundreds more are on the way, having reached Shavei Shomron by bus and marching the remaining seven kilometers by foot. The IDF is guarding the marchers, but blocking vehicles from entering the area.In an abrupt about-face, the security forces - army and police - decided last night (Sunday) that instead of mass arrests, threats to sue for law-enforcement costs, and possible violence, they would enable thousands of orange activists to reach Homesh today. They are considering allowing protestors to spend the night there as well.IDF sources were later quoted as saying they would dry them out, planning to prevent large supplies from reaching the protestors.

They would thus wait for the activists to break down because of the difficult conditions and leave.Boaz HaEtzni, one of the organizers, told Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham in response, I love this chain of events. First they said they wouldn't let us go up, and now they say they will wait us out. The ball is in our court, and we see it as a challenge, under good conditions. The weather is good and the army is not stopping us. If there are a million people in Israel who feel really strongly about this, then despite the holiday, or maybe because of it, and if everyone realizes that it is in his hands, Homesh will be rebuilt.Activist leaders have said over the past few days that even if they are not permitted to remain this time, they will try again in the future. Uncounted numbers of people began making their way to the area yesterday and this morning, and dozens of buses were scheduled to set off around noon from various locations around the country. Many of them have sleeping bags, hoping to remain there for as long as possible. As of mid-morning, many people were gathered in nearby Shavei Shomron, preparing to ascend together with others who are expected to arrive throughout the day, The ultimate goal: to rebuild the destroyed Jewish town.

Homesh was the site of a Jewish community in the Shomron from 1981 until it was destroyed - along with 24 others in Gush Katif and the Shomron - by Ariel Sharon in the Disengagement.

It is now nothing more than several piles of ruins where homes used to stand. Unlike Gush Katif, from which the army retreated and handed over to Arab control, Homesh and nearby Sa-Nur are still under full Israeli control - and yet Jews have not been permitted there since the destruction of 2005. Refusing to accept a situation in which Israeli-controlled land is arbitrarily forbidden to Jews, concerned citizens of the orange (anti-Disengagement) camp publicly and widely announced a plan to resettle Homesh a month ago - almost daring the army to try and stop them. The army forces responded last week with an unusual threat to clamp down hard on those trying to reach the area, and even threatened to sue the many expected arrestees for the financial costs incurred in the operation.

As it became clear that the 2,000 soldiers amassed for the operation would not suffice, and with the fear that the orange activists might endanger themselves by attempting to evade soldiers by walking through or near Arab villages, and with the additional fear of Amona-type violent clashes between soldiers and citizens - the army made an about-face.

In a meeting last night with leaders of the Return to Homesh operation, it was decided that the soldiers would not try to stop the activists, but would rather protect the two routes by which they are expected to arrive. However, the army said that no one would be permitted to remain later than tonight or possibly tomorrow - and expects the protestors to cooperate. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking at joint press conference today with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said, I understand that there was an agreement reached between the defense officials and the organizers, according to which they will visit Homesh and then leave. I expect that the organizers will stand by their word and that we will not not have to use other means to cause them to leave. We have no intention of repopulating unauthorized outposts.

EVIL INVENTIONS ARE PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE.

ROMANS 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human
By CLAUDIA JOSEPH - 21:26pm on 24th March 2007

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus. Chimera: sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant. We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient, said Prof Zanjani, whose work is highlighted in a Channel 4 programme tomorrow. We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body. The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten foetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many available in case the first one fails.

At present 7,168 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in Britain alone, and two thirds of them are expected to die before an organ becomes available. Scientists at King's College, London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle have now applied to the HFEA, the Government's fertility watchdog, for permission to start work on the chimeras. But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race. Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV.Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all.

DANIEL 7:23-24 (EU CONTROLS THE WHOLE EARTH)
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.(EU LEADER DICTATOR)
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.(EU DICTATOR)

Merkel seeks treaty giving EU more powers by 2009
By Stephen Castle in Berlin 26 March 2007

Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has seized the initiative over the European constitution by outlining ambitious plans to clinch an end-of-year deal on a fresh treaty that would include new powers for the EU.

Ms Merkel used celebrations for the 50th birthday of the EU yesterday to speed up the timetable for salvaging parts of a constitution that has been in limbo since French and Dutch voters rejected it in a referendum in 2005.A summit in Berlin paved the way for an inter-governmental conference - the only body that can re-write the EU's rule book - that could be wound up by the end of the year. That would enable each of the 27 nations to ratify the new agreement next year, allowing it to come into force before the next European elections in 2009.

Ms Merkel, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, made it clear that she foresees a treaty giving the EU new powers over energy policy and one in which fewer decisions on justice and interior matters are subject to national vetoes.EU leaders broadly backed the fast-track approach but remain divided on the content of the treaty which will take the place of the constitution. Britain has made it clear that it agrees with the timetable only so long as it involves a slimmed down text that does not trigger a referendum in the UK - though it has yet to lay down what this means.The constitution would have reformed decision-making for an enlarged EU, creating a slimmer European Commission, a full time president of the European Council, where governments meet, an EU foreign minister and creating a voting system based on population size.

Tony Blair said that the reforms need to be resolved, adding: I think the sooner it is resolved the better, actually. But he also reminded supporters of the constitution that there were two no votes in France and Holland and we have to be realistic about that.

The Dutch government this week insisted a new treaty must, in content, scope and name, convincingly differ from the constitution. The Poles and Czechs are also sceptical and Ireland's premier, Bertie Ahern, called for a dose of reality around the table.Ms Merkel's plan envisages a decision in June to open an inter-governmental conference in the second half of the year, when the Portuguese hold the rotating presidency of the EU.People feel we have to take a decision in June about a road map with a certain content - without prejudging anything in the IGC, she said. We have often said that the IGC should ... be short and concentrated. As part of the celebrations, European leaders endorsed a three-page Berlin Declaration setting a mid-2009 deadline for establishing a renewed common basis for the EU, while leaving out theword constitution.

Even though Ms Merkel is ready to drop the use of the c word when discussing the new treaty, the Chancellor faces acute difficulties in getting the agreement of all 27 member states on the contents of a new text.The Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, said that ratifying a new treaty to reform European Union institutions in place of the stalled EU constitution in 2009 was unachievable.Berlin is hamstrung until France has elected a new president in May and faces the added difficulty of a change of premiership in Britain. The likely new prime minister, Gordon Brown, is generally more Eurosceptical than Mr Blair. Both the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, and his Danish counterpart, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that a deal by the end of the year was essential if the EU was to hit its 2009 deadline.

The Italian premier, Romano Prodi, said that Germany would press for a very tight calendar for negotiating a new treaty when the leaders next meet in June. Yesterday's meeting was held against the background of two days of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which gave birth to what became the EU. In her ceremonial speech, Ms Merkel recalled Britain's scepticism about the prospects of European integration in the run-up to the signing of the treaty.She quoted a British official, Russell Bretherton, who is reported to have told a key meeting in Messina: The future treaty you are discussing has no chance of being agreed: if it was agreed, it would have no chance of being ratified; and if it was ratified, it would have no chance of being applied.

We had no time to philosophise about this revolution
24.03.2007 - 19:48 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / INTERVIEW - It was during a trip to a destroyed Germany in 1947 when Max Kohnstamm, a Dutchman working as a private secretary for queen Wilhelmina, became deeply convinced that Europe should take common responsibility for its post-war future. That journey made a great impression on me, says Mr Kohnstamm who just a few years later became one of the pioneers of European integration and a close collaborator of EU founding father Jean Monnet. I was especially overwhelmed by the unimaginable destruction of Germany, the now 92 year-old tells EUobserver in his home in the Belgian Ardennes. When you saw children crawling out of the from the ruins it appeared hard to defend that these children were guilty of Auschwitz, he states. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Mr Kohnstamm himself had spent periods in the concentration camp of Amersfoort and the prisoner camp of Sint-Michielsgestel.

But seeing Germany's despair, it became evident to him that the reconstruction of the Dutch economy would lead to nothing if at the other side of the border, the desert would start.On the other hand, Dutch memories of Nazi aggression were still very fresh. What sense does it make to have the Ruhr area in full swing if used to produce bombs which can be thrown at Rotterdam? When Mr Kohnstamm worked as a foreign ministry official in 1948-1949, political circles in The Hague were already searching for solutions for the difficult German question, mooting plans to integrate Germany in some sort of pan-European economic structure.

This step had to succeed

But it was France's foreign minister Robert Schuman who in May 1950 presented - in Mr Kohnstamm's words - a revolutionary plan to put Franco-German production of coal and steel under a common High Authority, in a scheme open to other countries that might be interested. Immediately inspired by the Schuman plan, Mr Kohnstamm became a member of the Dutch delegation in negotiations between six nations on what was to become a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC talks were chaired by another Frenchman who had been the real brain behind the Schuman plan - Jean Monnet, at that time the head of the French General Planning Commission.

At the opening of the negotiations, Monnet very clearly stressed the revolutionary nature of this process, Mr Kohnstamm recalls on the first round of the talks, which he describes as to a large extent informal with a small number of people. On the nature of the revolution, we did not philosophise a lot.

There was no time for that. We made this step and it had to succeed. If it failed, there would not be much more left to think about.Meanwhile, West Germany was an equal partner in the talks - something which was not that self-evident, even if the upcoming Soviet threat made re-engagement of the Germans a matter of urgency. One close Monnet aide, Etienne Hirsch, had lost his parents in Auschwitz. But he negotiated with the German delegation on the basis of equality. That was proof of a greatness of vision.Meanwhile for the Netherlands - strongly oriented towards the UK and the US - it was hard to swallow that the British had chosen to stay out of the talks. The Germans were hated by a large part of the population, the Italians we had never really taken seriously, we did not trust the French and we didn't really trust the Belgians either, Mr Kohnstamm describes the early post-war atmosphere in the Netherlands.

Monnet's view on the world

But the revolutionary negotiations succeeded, and Mr Kohnstamm was rewarded in 1952 with a job as the first Secretary of the High Authority - the executive body - of the European Coal and Steel Community.

Mr Kohnstamm worked directly under Jean Monnet who served as the ECSC's first president, leading to a close working and personal relationship between the two. The Dutchman also followed Monnet when he switched from the ECSC to the so-called Action Committee for the United States of Europe, a pressure group lobbying for further European integration from 1956 onwards.

During those years, he gradually developed an understanding of Monnet's deeper motivations, which the Frenchman did not often share with others.Monnet had no end-goal in sight for the European project, but rather saw it as a process without an end, Mr Kohnstamm says. For Monnet, terms like federation or confederation – those were words. But the process was clear – a process through which people started to realise that they had a common responsibility. One of the rare times when our
conversations did go in-depth, Monnet said: look, freedom of goods, services, people, capital is very important and necessary, but what this is really about is to get people to understand that it's not about my interest against your interest, but that in this world, only common solutions are possible.

Message for the future

This was, according to Mr Kohnstamm, Monnet's view on the world - a view which the Dutchman wants to pass on to younger generations. His message on the occasion of the EU's 50th birthday is directed to world leaders rather than to Europe alone. Mr Kohnstamm says he is not very worried about the EU's current constitutional crisis and believes the integration process is continuing.The essential element of it is the common decision-making and the European Court in Luxembourg. The greatest triumph has been that in these 50 years, not a single government has said – well, the heck with it.But on the level of world politics, we are busy returning to the balance of power as the regulating principle, he says expressing deep concern about the power politics of the US in particular, citing various examples such as Washington's recent coalition-building efforts with Japan and Australia against China. We know from our own history what that leads to...If you want to put it in a very dark way: the European Community was created not before, but only after 40 million people were killed.

March 2007 | The EU in 2027
As the European Union celebrates its 50th birthday, one Europe-watcher imagines its next 20 years - Charles Grant

Charles Grant is director of the Centre for European Reform. Parts of this article are based on a contribution to European Union: the next 50 years, a book published recently by FT Business, Agora and the London School of Economics. Given how much respect most Europeans feel for the EU today in March 2027, one can easily forget that when it celebrated its 50th birthday, in 2007, it was widely mistrusted. When given the chance to vote on the EU in referendums, people usually gave it the thumbs down. The EU passed through its darkest moments at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.Britain and France caused many of the problems. The British, under successive governments led by Gordon Brown and David Cameron, blocked significant changes to the EU treaties, even where there was a clear need for institutional reform. Britain thus marginalised itself from mainstream European debates, but the others moved on, setting up avant-garde groups without the British. France also proved destructive, blocking freer trade, deregulation, enlargement and farm policy reform.

But around 2010, the EU’s fortunes started to revive, for four reasons. The first of these was economic. The root of the earlier malaise had been the high unemployment and slow growth in many countries that made people fearful of change—whether market liberalisation, more open trade, EU enlargement or new treaties.

But the Italian crisis of 2009 proved a turning point. After the collapse of the centre-left government led to political chaos, financial markets started to fear that Italy was incapable of structural economic reform. With its exports decreasingly competitive, Italy’s current account deficit and foreign debt soared. Foreign investors insisted on a hefty premium before lending to Italy. Leaders on the nationalist right and the hard left called for the country to quit the euro, devalue and repudiate foreign debt. With that outcome looking likely, financial markets started to view Greece, Spain and Portugal—which had also lost much competitiveness—as potential quitters of the euro.Then Mario Monti, the former EU commissioner, formed a government of technocrats, backed by moderates of left and right. The trade unions tried to block Monti’s radical programme of economic reform, but despite mass demonstrations and civil unrest, he faced them down and won.

Business confidence, foreign investment and economic growth all picked up. Inspired by Italy’s example, other members of the eurozone found the political will to fulfil the promises on economic reform that they had made in Lisbon in 2000.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy had begun his term of office cautiously, fearing that if he revealed his true ultra-liberal colours he would provoke social unrest. But Monti’s success inspired Sarkozy to liberalise labour markets, reform public services and cut back the role of the state. France responded to firm leadership, and the left, still in disarray after three successive presidential election defeats, proved an ineffective opposition.

The economic reform agenda gathered pace across the EU, with member states learning from each others’ examples: British centres of excellence in higher education, Nordic active labour market policies, Baltic incentives for entrepreneurialism and French policies to encourage childbirth all proved attractive models. So at the special summit to mark the tenth anniversary of the Lisbon agenda—held in Lisbon in 2010—European leaders were able to celebrate its qualified success. With most EU economies growing at more than 3 per cent a year, popular hostility to economic openness and further enlargement began to wane.

The second cause of the EU’s revival is that its institutions have undergone dramatic reform over the past 20 years. Because of the commission’s slow, inflexible and cumbersome procedures, it was ill suited to spend money. So its spending departments were turned into independent agencies, accountable to the European parliament. The commission still drafts laws, sets objectives for the spending agencies and studies long-term challenges. It also polices the single market, negotiates with third parties and has the important task of explaining to citizens how the EU works. Official documents are translated into all EU languages, but since 2012, English has been the only spoken language within the commission. This has led to huge savings on interpretation. The commission is much smaller and nimbler than it was, its staff having dropped from 28,000 in 2007 to 8,000 today.

The EU’s budget was radically transformed in 2014, when the member states decided to take full financial responsibility for supporting their own farmers. The budget is now spent in roughly equal measure on R&D, aid for poorer EU regions, assistance for neighbours and foreign policy (including defence missions). But its overall level—about 1 per cent of EU GDP—has stayed constant for the past 20 years.

The most dramatic institutional change came in 2019, with the first direct elections for European commissioners. The electorate of each member state chooses a commissioner for a non-renewable term.

The European parliament then chooses one of those elected as commission president and another as EU foreign minister. The president picks ten of the remainder as full commissioners, the others becoming deputies. Critics of this reform argued that it would encourage commissioners to promote national rather than EU interests. But they had always done that. What did change was that voters started taking a bit more of an interest in the EU. And the commission—blessed with democratic legitimacy—gained the authority to stand up to the member states that tried to break the rules.Third, ever since the presidency of José Manuel Barroso (2004-09), the commission has repeated the mantra that the EU should focus on delivering benefits in the areas that matter to citizens.

And the union has done a pretty good job on that front. Its Climate Change Agency—as independent as the European Central Bank—is a popular institution. It decides on the levels of greenhouse gases that the EU should emit each year, and divides up quotas among the member states. This has cut the union’s carbon emissions significantly, enabling it to lead by example in international talks on tackling climate change. Many other countries have joined the EU’s emissions trading scheme.

Other EU agencies are also respected. Europol now co-ordinates the counter-terrorist work of the national intelligence agencies. Frontex, the border management agency, fights illegal immigration by deploying fleets off north Africa and undercover agents on either side of the union’s eastern border. Energy security is another area where EU action—under the commission’s leadership—is generally popular. The EU has linked up the various national grids, and adopted rules requiring each government to store gas and share it with those suffering shortages. Fourth, the EU has developed a more effective and coherent foreign policy, thanks in part to Vladimir Putin, who returned to office for a third—and increasingly authoritarian—presidential term in 2012. Russia’s illiberal political system, military build-up and threatening behaviour towards its neighbours made the member states see the value in sticking together when dealing with Russia.Russia proved difficult but not impossible to deal with. The Europeans discovered that, so long as they remained united, they had some cards to play: Russia wanted to stay in the Council of Europe and the G20 (which had replaced the G8); it eventually learned that it needed foreign investment in its ageing gas and oil industries, to prevent a severe fall in production; and it wanted its energy firms to have the right to buy western firms.

International competition spurred Gazprom to modernise its corporate governance and transform itself into a true multinational. After Gazprom bought Gaz de France and E.ON Ruhrgas, it became easier for western firms and governments to deal with. In 2014, when the Kremlin seemed to be preparing to invade Georgia, EU foreign minister Carl Bildt warned Russia that it risked losing a seat at European tables, foreign investment and access to the single market. This démarche worked, and the Kremlin pulled its troops back from the frontier.

The EU’s enhanced role in foreign and defence policy has won broad public approval. Thanks to the creation of the EU foreign minister and diplomatic service, and the abolition of the rotating presidency, other countries generally treat the union with more respect than they did in 2007.

The EU makes a pretty good job of combining its diplomatic, economic and military means to promote security, good governance and prosperity in many unstable regions. While the EU has 50,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Palestine and Somalia, it has hundreds of thousands of judges, policemen, aid workers and other civilian staff in difficult places. These external actions have boosted awareness among European citizens of their shared interests and values.These four factors transformed the popularity of the EU, even in the more sceptical countries such as Britain. By 2020, the British had opted in to most of the avant-garde groups they had excluded themselves from. The pundits who had predicted that enlargement would stop after the accession of Croatia in 2012 were proved wrong. The mood of optimism in Europe helped the cause of enlargement. Not only Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia joined the EU, but also Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

However, France has voted twice in referendums to keep out Turkey, while a Serb referendum defeated the membership hopes of Albania and Kosovo. Spain has blocked membership talks with Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine because its EU partners said no to Moroccan membership.

The slow pace of further enlargement has spurred the union to offer several neighbours participation in most EU policies. For example Israel, inside the European Economic Area, takes part in everything the EU does bar foreign and defence policy. Meanwhile, the French are preparing to vote for a third time on Turkish accession. They are starting to look more favourably on the Turks. Per capita incomes in Turkey have overtaken those of the poorer French regions; the Kurdish assembly in southeast Turkey has won autonomy over most areas of domestic policy; Turkey provides more troops for EU military missions than any other country; and French companies are having to tackle labour shortages at home by recruiting directly in Turkey. Opinion polls suggest that this time France will vote oui. Meanwhile in Britain, David Miliband’s government is promising a referendum on joining the single currency.