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After two years of paralysis and doubt, the European Union has been relaunched. The agreement reached at the European Council of 21 and 22 June is doubly good news.
First, as to substance: to say the least, the main innovations contained in the draft Constitution have been retained. Nearly all the institutional and legal changes in the treaty signed on 29 October 2004 have been incorporated in the conclusions of 22 June relating to the ‘amending treaty’. And this time the consensus on parliamentary ratification wherever possible offers a solid guarantee that there will not be another ‘ratification accident’. Indeed, the new treaty should apply as from June 2009, the date of the next European elections. If we keep to that schedule, we will almost make up the time lost by the failed referendums in France and the Netherlands.
Secondly, as to attitude: it was a long time since top European leaders had embraced the future of the Union as they did at the June solstice meeting. A German Chancellor both skilful and determined, a dynamic new French President tirelessly serving the common cause, the Prime Ministers of Spain, Italy, the UK, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, all took part in this team effort. Meanwhile the Czech Republic was helping to persuade Poland. Aside from all the media hysteria, it is an encouraging picture and it augurs well not just for agreement on its institutions but for the political relaunching of Europe.
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Tony Blair can leave his job as Prime Minister with at least one cause for satisfaction: ‘Blairism’ has triumphed on this side of the Channel. And that is all to the good.
It is a triumph not of the content of future French policy (nobody here approves of Blair’s decision on Iraq) but of a new political approach. A younger, more modern style, a calculated, scientific use of the media, which means not just smiling in the studio but creating an event by being there on the spot and meeting the actors involved in the dramas and successes of our time. It means abandoning the post-war ideological ‘markers’ that did so much to delay old Europe’s adjustment to the new world. When Blair was formally received at the French National Assembly, he astounded the right and angered the left by calmly declaring that there is not a right-wing or left-wing economic policy, there is a policy that works and one that fails. As a socialist, he said, I choose the policy that works; then, as a socialist, I can distribute the fruits of success. It is also worth noting that he is more attached to moral values than to doctrine.
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