GMF - The German Marshall Fund of the United States - Strengthening Transatlantic Cooperation

English abstract with full text in original German language attached below.

Since the French and Dutch voted against a European Constitution, Europe has found itself in an identity crisis, euphemistically referred to as an "opportunity for reflection."  The questions brought to the fore by this negative reaction toward a constitution are not new -- mostly they focus on the distribution of power within the institutional system of the EU.  These issues were not resolved in the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, nor in the Treaty of Nice in 2000.  Since then, events such as the attacks of September 11, the war in Iraq, and the eastward expansion of the European Union have led to a dramatic change in the political parameters in which the EU functions.

The text of the European constitutional treaty contained many reforms that would have allowed an effective integration in terms of security and defense policy as well as in judicial politics.  The negative vote was neither against the specific text of this treaty nor against European integration as such.  Rather, it was a vote against the Europe of today, a Europe in which especially those members who have been a part of the union the longest feel they are losing any say in the matter, a feeling exacerbated by the current eastward expansion of the EU.  The terms "expansion fatigue" and "costs of expansion" are continually tossed around, whereas the EU members should really be asking themselves what the costs of not expanding would be.  Regarded from political, geo-strategic, cultural, and economic perspectives, it is in Europe's interest to expand. The European Union is a process, not a static entity, and its ability to expand and adapt to new situations should be seen not as a weakness, but as its greatest strength.