If Ireland rejects the Lisbon Treaty, a smaller group of European Union nations should create a “core Europe” in order to implement the treaty, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suggested on Friday.

“If the Lisbon Treaty on EU reform does not pass, we need to completely revisit the current functioning of Europe to create a core of states that operate beyond unanimity,” he said at a press conference after meeting with Slovenian Premier Borut Pahor.

“Europe cannot truly take decisions because decisions must be taken unanimously and that cannot continue,” said Berlusconi.

EUobserver.com reported,

Various politicians and academics have advocated the idea that an inner core of EU member states drive forward with deeper integration via the development of a new organization, often described as a European federation, alongside the existing European Union.Some experts believe that even if the Irish approve the treaty, such a move remains inevitable as the Union expands beyond 27 member states.

Even at 27 members, Europe is so large and unwieldy that it is hard for it to make quick decisions, or any decisions at all. Major decisions require unanimous consent from all nations involved. But if Europe were pared down, and the condition of unanimity removed, then it would be able to move a lot faster.

This is exactly what the Bible says will happen. As far back as 1956, the founder and editor in chief of the Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth, Herbert W. Armstrong, forecast that a union of nations, led by Germany, would emerge in Europe. In his final book, Mystery of the Ages, he spoke of “a union of 10 nations to rise up out of or following the Common Market of today (Revelation 17).” He then wrote, “Britain will not be in that empire soon to come.”

This group of 10 nations could emerge from this idea of creating a “core Europe.” Watch this issue closely—it is an event that we have been prophesying of for years.