Simply a Bad Idea

This weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting a summit in Berlin to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bloc. She is something else. In a newspaper interview, she was asked how she saw the European Union developing in the next 50 years. Her answer was not terribly surprising. She said, "In the EU itself we must come closer to a common European army." Poland's President, Lech Kaczynski expressed a year ago, the need for a 100,000 man EU defense force, also capable of coordinating with NATO, if needed.

Does anyone besides me see something wrong with this picture? Which European ideology can you think of, involving a German army, that was ever a good idea? Merkel, I'm sure would wonder why such a question would ever be asked. She's very bent on reviving the EU constitution and she will no doubt be courting the Dutch and French constituencies, both of which rejected the document a couple of years ago. I wonder how she will go about that. Germany still enjoys more economic growth than any other country in the EU, and enjoys more votes than any other member state, and I think we know how France responds to anyone who is more successful or powerful than she is. That is the material point however, Germany being in a position of power again. Will the French ever learn?

Under Chancellor Merkel's leadership, Germany will be leading the charge to reintroduce the concept of an EU constitution at the EU summit this June in Brussels. Their aim is to get a revamped document ratified two years after that. One of the things I'm sure that Germany is hoping a constitution will facilitate is speedier decisions by the EU body, since relatively little of what they do as a governmental body is accomplished without a lot of squabbling and power struggles.

Can't have those pesky little parliamentary procedures getting in the way of things we want now, can we?