Comments on: Finalit�

By: victor falk

victor falk — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:54:48 +0000

2029: The European Union becomes the Western Union as Russia, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zeland, Canada and the USA joins it.

I wish…

Bush has set back this possibility by at least ten years, and maybe destroyed it for ever…

By: Cloned Poster

Cloned Poster — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 23:10:26 +0000

Interesting thread.

Russia is the target for the EU members. Think of the markets, the oil, the bilateral trade and the fact that Napoleon and Hitler tried unsuccessfully.

By: Otto

Otto — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 21:33:44 +0000

If, as Chirac says, there will be French referenda on all new members after Rom and Bulgaria, then there are very unlikely to be any new members after Romania and Bulgaria.

I suppose the French might say yes to the Swiss.

By: Randy McDonald

Randy McDonald — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 01:54:42 +0000

I disagree that width must come at the expense of depth, incidentally. In the past 31 years, the European Union’s membership has more than quadrupled, from the original Europe of the Six to the current Europe of the Twenty-Five. Over this time, the European Union’s powers have increased significantly, to the point that Brussels is the source of much of the regulation that underpins the lives of Europeans from Lisbon and Dublin east through to Tallinn and Budapest, a single currency zone has been established covering the economic core of the European Union, and there’s a variety of reasonably promising initiatives on harmonizing defense, foreign policy, et cetera.

Certainly the European Union isn’t a homogeneous federation. It was probably unrealistic to expect it to become this in any case–European integration in the 1960s, when the then-EEC included only six member-states, proceeded slowly. I don’t see any contradiction inherent to the idea of a moderately tight confederal European Union that covers most of the European continent and perhaps bits of the adjoining Mediterranean (and Atlantic?) shores.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 22:09:57 +0000

Having just recently returned from Russia, and having lived there for several years, I’m significanly less optimistic that it, Ukraine, or Belarus will be in any position to join the EU w/in 50 years. In fact, I suspect that Russia will more closely resemble a cold Nigeria than Poland in 50 years. There is just not the slightest indication that its moving in the right direction, as much as I hate to say it. If anything, the leadership in Ukraine and Belarus is worse, though I suppose there might be some more reason to think that change could happen there. And, I don’t see any good reason to think that either Armenia or Azerbijan are moving any time soon (and 15 years is soon here) from the little-khan style of leadership, so I’m not so optimistic about them, either. Sigh. I wish it were otherwise, but I just don’t see such wishes being based on anything other than wishful thinking.

By: Antoni Jaume

Antoni Jaume — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 02:14:28 +0000

Malta has joined this spring. I do not understand your reference to “majority-moslem countries”, Malta is 98% Catholic.

DSW

By: John Doe

John Doe — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:15:20 +0000

Did Malta already join? I think Europeans would be fools to admit any majority-moslem countries to the Union. Disclaimer: I am American.

By: John T. Kwon

John T. Kwon — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 21:17:09 +0000

We need to consider rewriting the NATO treaty (renaming the organization for a start). Obviously the world has changed in ways that no one would have predicted when the organization was formed.

I know that a lot of you think it’s a crazy notion, but I believe that fifty years from now, there’s going to be a world government. It won’t spring from the UN, any more than it sprang from the League of Nations. But, it will initially consist of the US, the EU, Russia, China, Japan, and a lot of up and coming nations. Membership will be by admisssion, just as we see the EU working today - and there will be obvious benefits to belonging. But there will be a bride price - your nation will have to reach certain standards of civilization before being accepted. In some cases, I see such a world government intervening in nations that are too far behind to make any real progress.

We have an obligation to nation build. Yes, mistakes will be made. But to not step forward and give the gift of civilization, peace, security, and personal freedom to every person on earth is to say that some of us are more deserving of those gifts than others.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 19:38:46 +0000

Saakachvili says Georgia should join NATO within four years

PARIS (AFP) Jun 30, 2004
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in an interview published Wednesday that his country should become an official candidate to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization within two years, and become a member within four years.

He told the daily Le Figaro that he sees NATO membership as “a kind of entry ticket to the European Union.”

“If Turkey joins the EU, I am persuaded that Georgia will follow — it will be almost automatic,” he said in Istanbul, where he attended a European-Atlantic partnership meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit conference.

Saakashvili said it was “imperative” to provide multilateral security guarantees for the southern Caucasus and Black Sea regions. Otherwise, he said, “our zone could become a source of permanent conflict.”

He added, “the principle fear of Moscow in this affair is that American troops will be stationed on our territory,” he added. “We have said very clearly that we do not want that.”

As for Russian military bases on Georgian soil, Saakashvili said they have no strategic importance, and it was up to his government to “make the Russians understand that their dismantling would not be a loss.”

By: Georg

Georg — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 18:15:05 +0000

I’d put my money in Nick’s and Randy’s corner. Algeria not to forget. But in general, much slower. Especially for the countries beyond Turkey and the Balkans.