Word: european
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...Irish question - the 21st century version of it, not the one that so vexed Victorian statesmen - has been settled. Ireland's Oct. 2 referendum vote in favor of the Lisbon Treaty and a new constitutional settlement for the European Union was decisive. It seems highly likely that Poland and the Czech Republic, the two holdouts in the process of ratifying the new treaty, will fall into line soon, however much it may pain Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the Saint-Just of Euroskepticism, to sign the document. By the beginning of next year, new institutional arrangements for the E.U. will...
Then what? First, perhaps, a pause for breath. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, there were 12 members of the European Community, as the E.U. was then known. Now there are 27. Inevitably, institutional reform of this metastasizing body has dominated debate for years, as its members have tried to figure how to make the damn thing work. The attention of political leaders has been directed inward, at just the time when tectonic movements outside Europe - the revival of political Islam, the economic rise of Asia - have both threatened and diminished Europe's centrality in world affairs. (Read...
...Soviet regime. “Paris Lost” by Wladimir Kaminer is the account of a counterfeit Paris, built by the Soviet government as part of a program to supposedly send some of the nation’s most productive workers on a free vacation to the European center of culture. Of course, they couldn’t possibly do this in reality—after all, capitalist temptations were lying in wait to seduce and entrap those good Communist citizens. Instead, the Soviet government chose to “build their own ‘Abroad?...
...clav Klaus doesn't hide his scorn of the European Union. The irascible Czech President refuses to fly the E.U. flag over Prague Castle. He argues that climate change - targeted in one of the E.U.'s signature policies - is a myth. On his only visit to the European Parliament, in February, he bluntly compared the E.U. to the Soviet Union. So it is no surprise that the 68-year-old former economist should try to sink the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to overhaul the E.U.'s decision-making process and has been a decade in the making...
...Across the E.U., officials are split on how to handle Klaus. Last week, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso called on Klaus not to raise "artificial obstacles" to the treaty, adding that since he had been elected president by the Czech parliament, he should "respect its views." Some talk darkly of punishing the Czech Republic, for example, by denying the country a seat in the next European Commission. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned of "consequences" if Klaus does not sign. But this could make a martyr of Klaus and stiffen his resolve. Others say the Lisbon Treaty...