EU 'should expand beyond Europe'

[villager]

Source: BBC


EU 'should expand beyond Europe'


Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.
He said enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability.

In his first major speech on the UK's relationship with Europe, he said the EU would not become a "superpower" but should be a "role model" for the world. It could be a "model power of regional co-operation" dedicated to free trade, the environment and tackling extremism. He said the EU must "keep our promises to Turkey", adding: "If we fail.... it will signal a deep and dangerous divide between east and west. "Beyond that we must keep the door open, retaining the incentive for change and the prospect of membership provides."

Mr Miliband made his address at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where Baroness Thatcher delivered her famous warning against "some sort of identikit European personality" almost exactly two decades ago in September 1988.

Mr Miliband said that speech had been "haunted by demons - a European superstate bringing in socialism by the back door".

But he said: "The truth is that the EU has enlarged, remodelled and opened up. It is not and is not going to become a superstate. But neither is it destined to become a superpower."

Instead he said the EU had the chance to be a "model power" which could develop shared values between countries.

"As a club that countries want to join, it can persuade countries to play by the rules, and set global standards. In the way it dispenses its responsibilities around the world, it can be a role model that others follow."

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Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7095657.stm

[Deja Q]

1. How about the US, Mexico, and Canada too?

:D

[aquart]

2. Buh bye NATO. Nobody needs the United States anymore.

In fact, one might consider this an action taken to defend AGAINST the United States.

[MADem]

3. We'd save a fucking BUNDLE if that was the case!!!

Will they call it the "Eastern (as in Hemisphere) Union?

[aquart]

5. Okay. That's a bit shortsighted for me.

Myopic bordering on blind, actually. Buy the cane and train the dog.

[MADem]

6. I'm not endorsing the measure. I'm simply reacting to the consequence of the assertion. nt

[Journeyman]

4. This idea was proposed in 1940 by Clarence Streit. . .

only in Freedom's Frontier -- Atlantic Union Now Streit saw the U.S. spearheading the effort, leading by example and with strong moral guidance. It's a good idea, no matter who proposes it, and I hope it moves forward with alacrity. No surprise, however, what with all that's passed since Streit wrote his thesis that the U.S. is not considered foremost anymore to lead this great venture.

[Jeroen]

7. And meanwhile Belgium is falling apart n/t

[fedsron2us]

8. Better sort out the Balkans first

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,,2212981,00.html

[enid602]

9. Evangelicals

I think the Evangelicals have been predicting a one-world state led by the EU (the beast with 13 horns?), bringing on the tribulation and rapture. This article will be manna for them.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Last time I heard, Israel wanted badly to be admitted into the EU, like Turkey.

[DetlefK]

11. That goes a bit too fast.

The EU has just recently risen to 25 countries, by including a large chunk of eastern europe. She will definitely need at least a decade, before these countries have been integrated.

The idea of such a federation of states is of course a good idea. "Behave, or you loose your benefits."

The African Union was created by the example of the European Union. But unluckily so far the results aren't promising.

Did you know that Philip K. Dick envisioned the USEA "United States of Europe and America" in his SF-novel "Simulacra"?

[HereSince1628]

12. Is it Empire envy? Or is it just nostalgia for colonialism?

I wonder if anyone has asked the Algerians how they might feel about being a colony of Europe again?

[T_i_B]

13. Er, that's the whole point of the EU!

I wonder if anyone has asked the Algerians how they might feel about being a colony of Europe again?

Nobody would force a country to join the EU without that countries government consenting. The EU does after all have enough issues with the more Euro-Sceptic Nations such as the UK saying no to further integration. (something which is probably for the better given what the EU can sometimes be like)

[HereSince1628]

14. 'enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability'

Buried in that are the echoes of the "lebensraum" of another time.

It sounds good until what is a useful tool becomes imperative defense, until what is voluntary becomes compulsory.

Because I live in the US I've firsthand experience with how the rhetoric spirals daily and in an ever yawning gyre transforms itself into something unbidden.

[The2ndWheel]

15. So the "European" Union should include what isn't "Europe"?

Isn't that what the US has been doing?

"He said a successful EU must be prepared to "deploy soft and hard power to promote democracy and tackle conflict beyond its borders"."

Yeah, it's exactly what the US does.

"It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time," he said."

So, the dead European empires want back in the game as one giant empire?

"But he said: "The truth is that the EU has enlarged, remodelled and opened up. It is not and is not going to become a superstate. But neither is it destined to become a superpower."

Except when it comes to deploying soft and hard power to promote democracy and tackle conflicts beyond its borders, and feeling embarrassed when they can't. Other than in those instances, it won't be an expanding empire.

The EU, the US, and any other such entities don't like diversity. No concentrated center of power likes diversity. To prove it, they will deploy soft or hard power to make sure you understand.