For many ordinary Europeans, "Brussels," the city that houses the European Union's headquarters, has become a kind of shorthand for the imperious ways of an overweening bureaucracy that seems increasingly unresponsive to their concerns.
So when ordinary Europeans in France and the Netherlands got a chance last week to express their feelings on the latest diktat from Brussels--the new Constitution for Europe," a 200-page, 448-article document of turgid prose and numbing detail--they trashed it. Enthusiastically and emphatically.
It's almost as if for years, the people of Europe who have gone along with the Euro elites who brought them the constitution, "TO SERVE EUROPEANS," have finally figured out how to translate the lower case letters inside the 200-page document. And low and behold, they have discovered to their horror that "To Serve Europeans" IS A COOK BOOK!
Far from a document to save the poor bloodthirsty Europeans from themselves, the constitution puts in power the elites of Europe for all time and without the worries that messy democracy will keep the elites from deciding what is best for Europe and Europeans. You have to admit, this is brilliant. For centuries the elites of various nations have tried to rule Europe by force of arms and after all that bloodletting, all have failed, weakening Europe as a whole. So instead, all the European elites have gotten together and have decided to share the rule of Europe. Why send out the tanks when you can just rotate the government? Even the Belgians will get a crack on occasion!
So don't think this is the end of it. Votes? Bah! The Euros will get the offending people to vote the right way. It is a mere inconvenience. The final vote is not in doubt--only the number of times the Europeans will need to vote to get that approved result. The Euro elites are not so easily put off:
"We cannot drop the idea of Europe because there are difficulties," [Schroeder spokesman Bela] Anda said after the meeting.
"The chancellor and the president agreed that the constitutional process must continue," he said. "We must use this development to make very, very clear that Europe is more than short-term voting behavior — this is about creating lasting peace, bringing about prosperity and freedom."
Chirac's spokesman, Jerome Bonnafont, said that "one country cannot decide on its own the fate of a treaty negotiated and signed by 25 states."
One country can't decide. Nor can two. That is no way to run an empire.
But the determination of small numbers of Euro elites can determine the fate of the treaty, apparently. Short-term voting will always be trumped by long-term elite wishes. That's the plan in Brussels anyway. Why have a Plan B when you can just keep doing what you want to do anyway?
