Forging a More Efficient Europe

Toward September’s end, two reports came out of Europe showing how the European Union hopes to tackle some of its fundamental flaws.

First came proposals to simplify EU law. The EU is known for its overabundance of laws and regulations—80,000 pages of minutiae from the size of a coffee can’s packaging to the shape of bananas. The European Commission, responsible for EU legislation, hopes to dump a third of the laws now up for consideration, and to simplify many of the directives already on the books.

Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen said these changes were just the beginning: “EU regulation makes sense where it adds value. But where it doesn’t we will scrap it.”

Second—and perhaps more interesting—is an idea for streamlining the overall government of the Union.

Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the favorites for the next French presidency, suggested that the EU solve its institutional crises through closer integration of the bloc’s six largest states. The 25-nation alliance would overcome many of its woes—one of them being the ability to agree on a constitution—if only the larger states would become the core of a newer, more-united Europe.

Sarkozy’s idea is that the Franco-German alliance, together with Britain, Italy, Spain and Poland—all six states representing 75 percent of Europe’s population—must “become the motor of the new Europe.”

He argued at a conference on Europe September 24 that this would enable Europe to operate more efficiently: “If we are able to develop this method … Europe would act, and she would act under the impulse of responsible politicians, not anonymous bureaucrats.”

EUobserver.com noted, “The group could then decide to proceed with integration in some areas that the other states could accept or not, without their refusal changing or delaying the decision” (September 26).

What we see in these two reports is a trend that will continue in Europe. For the Union to survive, it must simplify its cumbersome bureaucracy. Watch closely for a future Europe that hearkens more to “the impulse of responsible politicians” and core nations. Expect Europe to streamline its legislative process in order to robustly respond to the more pressing matters troubling the world.

For more on Europe’s relevance in global politics, see our article “The Contest for World Domination.”