Re: EU lacks will to lead world, Volume 11, Number 16, April 25 - May 1, 2005
There has been some progress [in EU military coordination], albeit minute. The Belgian army is recruiting members from the entire EU. Over and above the abilities one has to have for the job of course, one has to have good knowledge of either French or Dutch.
The Belgian army now employs a number of French, Italian and Dutch subjects. Although this is a step in the right direction, without some form of European central command, it is just superficial.
And although there are and were troops from the UK, Spain, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic in Iraq, as members of the "Coalition of the Willing", individual parliaments decide on when and how to withdraw their troops.
There is a total lack of coordination here, and for the entire world to see. The EU has indeed more or less come up with what it was originally designed for, namely, but each only to an extent, open borders, free trade, a coordinated visa system, a unified currency, a governing body and a united civilian aviation industry.
The trouble is however, that the current leaders nowadays spend most of their time dealing with issues of low importance, but which are likely to be agreed upon (the proposed smoking ban for instance). They keep busy with such things till the end of their terms, securing nice pensions for themselves. This generation [of politicians] appears to accept the unipolar world we live in today. Pity!
Oscar,
Radošovce, Slovakia
