The European Union - Dilemmas, Asymmetries and Equilibria of European Integration :: Essays Papers

The European mating - Dilemmas, Asymmetries and Equilibria of European Integration The European Union has been vacillating between a Federation and a Common- wealth approach. An unhappy situation has evolved, where all participants feel they are cheated large States think their small partners wield disproportionate clout, small States fear their marginalisation. No system of checks-and-balances seems to hold up e.g. in the field of Monetary Union. Moreover, no real solution has been proposed for the variation in development levels within the ever-closer Union and no credible equalizer has been sought between the competitivity race on one hand and a social profile for the Union on the other. A series of re-equilibrations has to march on in Europe for the future to happen without shocks. Whatever shines is not make of gold The long-winded negotiations of the IGC ad the much-hailed Amsterdam Treaty have brought runty change to the European Parliament. One technical point, though , may lead to an essential future shift in priorities. The maximum depend of EuroMPs has been fixed at 700 thus if enlargement takes place as expected, the number of sitting EuroMPs of impart EU members will have to shrink. For a country like Greece, this would throw away 21-22 members instead of the present 25. This should lead to a more rational choise of postings on the part of EuroMPs, who have been neglecting useful and even powerful Committees so as to sit on more decorative functions. EU Greece Admitted As subdivision Of Euro Common CurrencyGreece thus becomes the 12th member of the currency union, and the scratch to join since the project was launched just 18 months ago. Greeks are jubilant, saying the jaunt represents a recognition of the economic maturity achieved by their country. Athens-based media commentator Andreas Papageorgopoulos, who was at the summit site in Porto, put it this way For Greece its a commodious day, it proves that the Greek people through the ir government in the last some years have achieved an enormous task. They have overcome a number of obstacles, and now we are not at the door of Europe, but just about inside. But not everybody views the Greek accession as positive. The infant euro has had a hard time since its inception, losing almost a quarter of its value against the U.S. long horse because of lack of investor confidence. German bankers and financiers, in particular, have been outspoken in their persuasion that including in the euro Greece, a country traditionally plagued by economic problems, would enrapture the wrong signal to the markets.