Response: Just after his appointment as High Representative in 1999, Javier Solana outlined his vision for European foreign and security policy, during his first press conference:

The European Union is already a global player on the world stage. Europe is crucial in the formulation of the major trade policies, financial trends and monetary decisions. It is high time for Europe to become a more active an... more

Response: In the spring of 2005, the majority of the French and Dutch citizens voted down the glamorously celebrated European Constitution; an intergovernmental compromise which was the product of the lengthy workings of a Convention and the painful negotiations of another Intergovernmental Conference. The process of European integration “paused”, the European Union announced a period for “reflection” and t... more

Response: The European Union’s reform treaty contains almost all the original components of its predecessor, the constitution. On the face of it, the treaty will herald an immediate and significant shift of power away from the nation state and democratically elected parliaments, and towards the supranational decision-making bureaucracies in Brussels and Strasbourg.

As well as the new institutions that w... more

Response: Nobody in their right mind is against co-operation between countries of the European Union, but there is a world of difference between this and the steady process of integration.

Periodically there have been setbacks and diversions on the way, but the overall direction during the past half century has been towards deeper integration and an accrual of authority or “competence” away from individ... more