EurActiv is reporting that there is considerable excitement amongst the colleagues a.k.a. member states of the EU about the fact that the unreliable Czech Republic with its collapsing government and bloody-minded President will no longer be taking the rotating presidency of the Union. It will now be the much more reliable Swedes.
The Swedish government has already announced that the aim of the presidency will be "to push for 'more focused' Lisbon Strategy". A little late, methinks, as the aim of the Lisbon Strategy was to create by the rather unusual method of endless rules and regulations as well as scorecards, the most dynamic economy in the world by 2010. That economy was going to be the European one, whatever that might mean. Greater focus in the last six months of the allotted time is not going to achieve those desired results.
What I find rather peculiar is the assumption that somehow the Czech presidency made a difference and left scars on the political process of European integration. What difference? What scars?
The scars that you get when you stand in the way of the ever greater union express. Vaclav did stand up and speak disagreeable things to the toy parliament.
ReplyDeleteSaying things like "The crisis will be sooner or later over, but its long-term consequences – the consequences of measures to mitigate the crisis – will be with us for a much longer time." to the 16th Summit of Presidents of Central, Eastern and Southern European states on June 19th would not have gone down well with those eager to forward ever greater regulation of vassal states.
Doubt if they even noticed, especially as that applies to a lot more than just European integration.
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