This week's issue of the Economist offers a very interesting analysis of the European Union. My favourite magazine recalls that, despite the fact that today the European Construction is kind of stopped, the European construction has been a tremendous success. The newspaper is pretty optimistic and adds that there is a lot to celebrate. As an European enthusiast, I totally agree with this analysis.
Of course, the rejection by French and Dutch voters of the Constitution should not be underestimated. But, as pointed out by the magazine, I personally believe that in the French case at least, it had a lot more to do with the poor economic performance of the French economy than to the EU. Had the France been in a better financial situation, I am sure that the result of the referendum would have been different.
This, of course, is not the fault of the EU, but of our national politicians (our president in particular) who have failed to enact the proper legislations which would have put France back on track to economical prosperity.
I am particularly quite resentful towards J. Chirac who has, in his 12 years tenure, not accomplished much. The country is more or less in the same situation than the one he found when he arrived to power. Unemployment is still high, racism and antisemitism have not been defeated, deficits are still growing, the economy is not expanding fast enough, and so on.
In other words, I won't regret Chirac.
Photo from the Economist.com
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