June 14, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424

DUBLIN: Europeans love to argue. But as the European Union starts changing from an economic talking shop into a major world power, the arguments are making history. How united can a United Europe be? Now that the time has come to tie 25 countries into a package with its own constitution, new visions are meeting old hostilities and finding the going tough.

Washington likes dealing with each country on a one-to-one basis, which does not suit France and Germany, who share a very different picture of what Europe should be. Britain has already made allies of many of the former Soviet bloc states now entering the union, but they, like other small countries, are worried their voices will be muffled if the big states take control.

At stake is the shape of Europe for most of the 21st century; at issue is the makeup of whichever power bloc will control this diverse collection of nation states. Earlier this month, Valery Giscard d’Estaing unveiled plans for a pan-European constitution that backs off from some controversial earlier proposals. The New Europe, according to the former French prime minister, will not be a federation or superstate. Nor will it be called the United States of Europe or anything like it, as d’Estaing preferred.

Supporters say the constitution will give Europe a “legal personality.” They want a common foreign and security policy to be overseen by a specially appointed foreign minister reporting to a new president of Europe. The president, however, would not be elected directly by the people but by serving prime ministers — and he or she must be a serving or former prime minister to be eligible for the job.

In Britain, the question was whether people would be allowed to vote in a referendum for or against being European. A poll showed that while 80 per cent of British people were concerned that the plans would erode their sovereignty, they also, and with some reason, did not understand what the proposals involved.

Naysayers stand in line while d’Estaing launches a charm offensive to promote the constitution to its future citizens. Their fears of Franco-German dominance aren’t helped by the discovery that not all of the 59 draft articles passed through the complex consultative network.

Nor are smaller countries’ dislike of so-called qualified majority voting allayed by d’Estaing’s assurances that 5 million Danes or 7 million Bulgarians will not be outvoted by 50 million French.—Dawn/The LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post.