Whilst we wait for the resources. The negative effects of the stalemate on the Constitution and the disagreement stalemate over the financial perspectives 2007-2013 are starting to kick in. The downsized weight and prestige of France are having repercussions in fields which, at first sight, are not political. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe live in doubt and uncertainty, because they do not know when they will get the financial support that has been promised to them, nor how much of it. In the EU as a whole, the institutions are making every effort to bring forward projects and programmes, but budgetary uncertainty undermines these efforts. The Agriculture Council reached political agreement on the new Rural Development Fund, which will drain a significant chunk of the resources previously intended for the management of the CAP (including the promotion of non-agricultural activities, the protection of nature, reforestation, etc), and the Commission lost no time in adopting the "strategic orientations" for the activity of this Fund until 2013. Together with the Lisbon Strategy and sustainable development, these orientations cover renewable energy and bio-fuel, the environment and the countryside (see our bulletin 8984). At the same time, the Commission approved the strategic orientations for the cohesion policy.
But these two documents, which have raised so many hopes and opened up so many prospects, will not become operational until the multi-annual resources available have been set. However, these cover precisely the two common "solidarity" policies whose budgets Tony Blair intends to take the shears too! And he's the one chairing the work on the budget...
Democratisation. As for the Constitution, efforts are being made to rescue and implement the provisions allowing the national parliaments to make sure that the "principle of subsidiarity" is being respected within the EU, which is an essential element of its democratisation. The French parliament wants to take the initiative in resuscitating the early-warning system (which allows the national parliaments to intervene in Community legislative proceedings), in order to avoid this system being caught up in the shipwreck of the Constitution. This is a most welcome initiative, but the result remains uncertain. The stalemate on the Constitution is an obstacle to the democratisation of Europe.
Sympathies. I don't like Great Britain? That is the impression some of my readers have got from my comments on the concept of Europe and the attitude to agriculture prevailing on the other side of the English Channel. This is nothing new: various of my stances in favour of a certain concept of Europe have often been seen as expressions of antipathy against some camp or other. However, on this occasion, the camp in question is a country of which I am particularly fond!
This happened to me once with Brazil. I adore that country, as much as I can from this distance: the way in which the Brazilians were able to create a joint patriotism between all different races, its joyful conception of sport, its radiant eroticism, which is more evocative of Boccace than of Bataille... however, I feel that Europe cannot fully open up its borders to Brazilian agricultural products if it hopes to safeguard its nature, its biodiversity, its countryside and its food autonomy; as a result, I think that the plans for free trade in agriculture are a big mistake. The world needs Brazilian agricultural resources, but not little Europe (with the exception of bio-fuels, which could free it from the stranglehold its dependency on oil and the oil companies has placed it under). Another example is China, the world's oldest continuous civilisation, with whom it Europe has been trading knowledge and goods for a thousand years. But today, Europe has to take precautions (commercial, monetary and legal ones) against the all-conquering dynamism of the Chinese economy, if it does not want to be totally swamped. I will continue to put this in writing, but this will take nothing away from the fascination that Chinese civilisation inspires in me.
As for Great Britain, I have every respect for the British concept of Europe, but I think the European continent should do something else. On this side of the English Channel, an integrated Community, with an appropriate political weight and supranational institutions, which safeguards its own food autonomy, is, in my view, a requirement. I would like to borrow something that was written by a former Italian diplomat, now a political commentator, Sergio Romano. Having reiterated the unique mixture offered by the United Kingdom between the new (he referred to the "swinging London" of his youth) and the respect for traditions, he concluded: "where others see a danger to our civilisation, I see an extraordinary combination of freedom, fantasia, intelligence, tradition and a good dose of eccentricity. What a pity if, with such a fascinating country, we cannot create European unity!". Yes, what a pity indeed! (F.R.)