EU leaders spent the weekend trumpeting their "historic" accord on a constitution -- but will return to political reality this week as they prepare to sell the deal to increasingly euroskeptic publics.
EU haggling-as-usual will also reassert itself almost immediately, as Europe's capitals brace for a final fight over a new head for the European Commission, left unresolved by the summit which sealed the constitutional pact.
The constitutional accord, designed to shake up expanding EU's creaking institutions and prevent decision-making deadlock in the now 25-member bloc, was finally agreed late Friday after more than two years of wrangling.
It was hugely welcome news for EU leaders, in particular coming just a week after European Parliament elections which delivered a stinging blow to ruling parties across Europe.
"It's a great achievement for Europe. It's a great achievement for all Europeans," a jubilant Ahern said, shortly after popping the champagne corks at the Brussels summit.
But the main message of last week's election results -- a surge in support for euroskeptic forces, and a yawning lack of interest in the EU reflected in record low turnout -- are the very reasons EU leaders should be worried now.
Notably concerned are countries who will or may hold referendums on the constitution: Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg are sure to, while Poland, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and France could.
Analysts agree that a "no" vote in any one EU state could plunge the EU into a serious crisis. In theory the constitution must be ratified by all EU member states to come into force.
"If there is one `no,' one can imagine something to resolve this country's problem. If there are several `noes, there's no constitution," said one EU diplomat.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair in particular returned from the Brussels summit to unhappy weekend reading, as a pair of new polls showed more than twice the number of Britons are against the constitution treaty than are for it.
Blair vowed he was ready to take critics head-on. "This is going to be a fascinating political battle because it will be a battle between reality and myth," he said in a television interview.
But the scale of those myths was underlined yesterday when one leading British euroskeptic compared the EU to Hitler's Nazis, saying Blair was like Neville Chamberlain.
"He's like Chamberlain in the 1930s, it's appeasement," said Robert Kilroy-Silk of the UK Independence Party, which surged to third place in last week's polls.
Poland's interim Prime Minister Marek Belka said Saturday he backed holding a referendum despite the strong showing for anti-EU parties in last week's Euro elections.
The new EU constitution -- agreed six months behind schedule, after an attempt last December collapsed amid a fierce row over the power-charged issue of voting rights -- foresees some major innovations for the bloc.
If will notably establish a high-profile president for the EU, and a foreign minister, belatedly answering former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger's query over who should he call if if he wanted to speak to "Europe."
But analysts say that European voters' view of the EU is not helped by the sort of mudslinging and horsetrading which was evident at last week's summit.
The two-day summit notably saw the now-traditional clashes between Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, who at one point warned that the EU should "avoid being blocked by a single country."
"The result of that ... is the voters saying, `Actually, we don't trust any of you,' said Julie Smith of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
The spectacle of EU wrangling is, unfortunately, likely to continue this week with the battle to choose a successor to Commission head Romano Prodi.
Ireland's Ahern said he still wanted a decision taken before Dublin hands over the EU reins of power to the Netherlands at the end of the month. It remains to be seen if the EU can come together again so soon.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS