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A CRUCIAL YEAR FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION
Joaquin Roy
JANUARY 2007 (IPS) - It may sound dramatic, but it may be now or never for the EU, writes
Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European
Union Centre of the University of Miami.
In this analysis Roy writes that this will be a decisive year for the
organisation: it is now 50 years since it took its first daring
step with the Rome Treaty of March 1957, which transformed the initial
European Steel and Coal Community, formed in 1951, by incorporating
the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community.
It has now been five years since the adoption of the euro by 300
million citizens in the thirteen countries of the EU as well as a
handful of mini-states that had used the currencies of member states.
The euro was a success in all basic monetary operations. Although the
dollar remains dominant in terms of the setting of prices and tallying
debt, as an exchange currency the euro is on the verge of surpassing it.
However, while these two ambitious moves proved highly successful, the
warnings made simultaneously about the need for institutional reform
of an organisation used to dealing with fifteen more-or-less collegial
members have not been heeded. Unfortunately the Constitution was
derailed halfway through the ratification process after rejection by
Dutch and French voters. With the project on hold until more
favourable conditions emerge, observers are now looking towards the
German presidency of the EU in the current semester and the results of
France's May elections. The energy of the former and the disposition
of the new leadership in Paris will determine the future course of the EU.
/NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH
REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, SPAIN, UNITED STATES, OR UNITED KINGDOM/ (END/2007)
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