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| Europe | |
| Shuffle those deck chairs! | |
| 2003-12-12 | |
| Constitution Deadlock Plunges EU Summit Into Gloom (EFL) The European Union’s landmark summit to agree a first constitution was plunged into gloom almost as soon as it began Friday as leaders stood their ground in a bitter battle over their nations’ voting rights. A last-ditch meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to seek a way out of the impasse brought "no breakthrough, no real movement," diplomats said. "The positions are a long, long way apart," Blair told reporters. "It is important to try and get an agreement. It may well not be possible."
Insert your own joke here... | |
| Posted by:mojo |
| #6 Well, the question is, what the *&$% is the EU supposed to be? Is it supposed to be A) Some useless idiot thing like the UN? B) A purposeful confederation of entities jealous of their soveriegnty? A) Why not just adopt the UN charter. No good? B) Well, there's three straightforward ways to design a voting system: 1) n votes per entity. No. Unacceptable to us big boys. 2) n votes per capita. No. Unacceptable to us little boys. 3) Both at once, and two Houses. Not for us. Who's ever gotten anything that complicated to work. What? Where? Since when? Oh. But they're just a bunch of cowboys. Who wrote that thing they're wrangling about, anyway? Valery who? Where's he from? That'd be a clue. |
| Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) 2003-12-12 9:23:01 PM |
| #5 P433r teh United Europa! |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2003-12-12 9:17:17 PM |
| #4 Poland and Spain aren't "smaller countries", dudes. They are honking big ones. Their problem lies in that though they don't have as big a population as France, Italy, or Britain they want pretty much the same voting rights. This ambition sets them apart from larger *and* smaller countries alike. The problems arose with ridiculous voting seats arrangments of treaties past -- EU is now just reaping the whirlwind that was sown in carelessness some time ago. One thing does become evident though - that we should have ratified the constitution before signing in more members. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2003-12-12 7:10:26 PM |
| #3 Poland and Spain would have 'em by the short ones if either Chirac or Shroeder had any honor and would be embarrassed by caught red-handed trying to change the rules after the fact, as they are doing. But they don't. "Break a deal: face the wheel." |
| Posted by: ,comma 2003-12-12 6:09:11 PM |
| #2 I Fisked this earlier today. What a clusterfuck this whole |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-12-12 5:56:43 PM |
| #1 Of course, this agreement will have no legitimacy unless the U.N. approves it, right??? |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-12-12 5:56:00 PM |