EU in turmoil: Clash over common language

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Bhopal Central Chronicle

EU in turmoil: Clash over common language

European Union comprising 25 nation states that is projected as a model
for other continents where nation states are in a confrontational mode or
are engaged in internecine wars is itself in turmoil. Those who visualized
and lobbied for a unified Europe traversed a long road that was full of
potholes. For them, it was not an easy task to bring together countries
that were at each other's throat for centuries and fought long and bloody
wars.  The Union has been conscious from the very beginning about the
absence of a common language that may bind Europe together. Consequently,
the European Commission, the administrative wing of the EU, works in as
many as 20 languages.

Yet, linguistic pride or chauvinism, depending on the way you look at it,
was brought into sharp focus when French President Jacques Chirac stormed
out of a business meeting during the March 23-24 EU summit at Brussels
taking exception to a fellow Frenchman's insistence to speak in English.
The President interrupted Earnet-Antoine Selliere, head of the European
business lobby, UNICE, asking him to speak in his mother tongue. The
latter politely told the President that English was the international
language of business. Chirac wasn't impressed and walked out of the
meeting with his two Ministers. Although the European media, by and large,
criticized the President for his "chauvinism", Frenchmen hailed him.

The summit was hyped as a major event to rejuvenate Europe's stagnating
economies and resolving disputes over protectionist polices of member
countries. Besides a common energy policy, the summit's agenda was to
create jobs to lift the bloc out of the current malaise that was caused by
rejection of the proposed EU Constitution by voters in France and
Netherlands. Instead, clashes over economic nationalism and sharp
disagreements over a common energy policy dominated the run up to the
summit. Its proceedings were dominated by feuds over spate of national
governments' attempts to protect their companies from foreign takeovers.
These developments have caused grave concerns among EU leaders who
apprehend that protectionism may roll back half a century of economic
integration. Open feuds, particularly between Italy and France, vitiated
the atmosphere and dashed all hopes of achieving greater integration of
European economy. In a bid to avoid confrontation, Chancellor Wolfgang
Schussel of Austria, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, urged member
states to put weeks of protectionists squabbles behind them.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany made an equally strong plea against
protectionism. She called for overcoming economic nationalism or risk
jeopardizing the Union's single market. "The internal market can't work
unless electricity flows freely and we agree on European champions and not
think strictly in national terms"; she observed alluding to state
interventions in a series of recent corporate deals. The most trenchant
criticism of protectionism came from Italy. Fuming over French
Government's efforts to engineer a French energy mega-merger and thwart
the Italian energy company ENEL's bid for a French concern SUEZ, Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy railed against France. One of
Berlusconi's coalition partners, Pier Ferdinando Casini, declared that any
country that restricted cross border takeovers was not a real European.
"Either you are a pretend (sic) European and therefore in favour of
protectionism and nationalism or you are a real European and want to
stimulate competition", he said in a barely veiled attack on France.
Reacting sharply to these attacks, a senior French official retorted that
Berlusconi was engaging in theatrics and that his country had three times
the foreign investment of Italy, while foreign shareholders in Italian
companies had limited voting rights. Not the one to give up, the Italian
Prime Minister lobbied EU members to sign a letter denouncing economic
nationalism. Several states resisted the move. Britain, Sweden and
Netherlands - EU's most ardent economic modernizers - refused to sign the
document on the grounds that it would further divide Europe at a difficult
time.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium too declined to sign saying
those who want to send letters have to beware of protectionism indulged in
by them. European media reports suggest that not many were willing to back
Berlusconi who is believed to be grandstanding for domestic political ends
- an obvious reference of Berlusconi's attempt to regain the ground he has
lost in his own country. He is lagging behind in recent polls. It is not
for the first time that the Italian Prime Minister has attracted flack.
During Italy's six-month EU presidency in 2004 he provoked all round
condemnation for his remarks against a German European Member of
Parliament (MEP) saying the MEP appeared to be a Nazi Camp guard. A common
approach to the security of energy supplies is a major issue before the
EU. It gained urgency after Russia temporarily cut supply of natural gas
to Ukraine earlier this year. The summit was expected to hammer out a
common approach on the issue but failed to achieve much on this front. EU
remains sharply divided on the issue. France and others of its ilk are
wary of giving EU more powers over this key sector, while others like
Poland are resisting opening their markets to the competition.

The common refrain of EU observers is that the summit proved a damp squib.
The EU is gripped by an identity crisis. The rejection of the EU
Constitution has forced the national governments in France and elsewhere
on the back foot. They are now invoking nationalist sentiments at the cost
of the bloc. European voters appear to be growing wary of liberalizing
union that has become synonymous with the forces of globalization that are
the cause of angst for joblessness and immigration. The admission of East
European countries into the Union - that is projected by many as a great
achievement since the end of the cold war - has created new challenges for
EU and made its institutions more cumbersome, remote and hard to
understand. Experts believe that the possibility of the Union going
backward, through increase in protectionism, is real. Optimists among EU
leaders are, however, confident that all problems, complex though they
are, will be overcome in coming months and years. They talk about the
50-year journey towards Europeanism that has made considerable progress in
a continent that witnessed long and bloody wars among nation states.

Shyam Khosla, Manuj Features



http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060411/1104302.htm