european union

The E.U. suffered a setback in mid-December 2003 as negotiations to produce its constitution collapsed primarily over the issue of voting rights.
Much of the constitution had been drafted by Elder Statesman of Europe, former President of France Valery Giscard d’Estaing. However, the Convention on the Future of Europe consisted of 105 representatives of E.U. governments, legislatures, and institutions, and in negotiations “old” member Spain and new member Poland clashed with Germany and France, both larger countries. The former wanted to maintain the interim system of voting adopted in 2000, which gave them a somewhat disproportionate number of votes compared to the latter. Germany and France wanted a formula of votes to reflect their greater population. (Shades of 1787 when our own Convention almost broke up over differing proposals for voting by the larger and smaller states, until the Connecticut Compromise was fashioned!) In any case, a new voting system would not go into effect until 2009.
Ireland assumed the Presidency of the European Council for the first half of 2004. Although there was some question over when the Convention would be in a position to meet again and make decisions, Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen began holding informal talks with his counterparts, a sign that work is continuing. Meanwhile, the constitution committee chair worried that the process might run out of steam if the constitution is not concluded before the mid-June European elections.
Despite these setbacks, the fact that countries that have been fighting each-other for hundreds of years (including two world wars in the just the past century) are now working together to form the first ever inter-national constitution is heartening to promoters of world federalism. It just goes to show how natural the concept of federating can be once a notion of common self-interest is recognized among any group of people.