Today is a great day. We have a common constitution now. The 25 EU-prime ministers have signed it today in Rome. The constitution will have to be ratified by every single member country. Some countries will have this done by parliament, others by national referendums (or rather: referenda, no: referendibus). My country is likely to have a referendum in summer 2005 and I’m looking forward to take part in a historic decision. The EU may not be perfect but this is another step on the road to peace and prosperity. European sisters & brothers - REJOICE!
Congrats!
Tom
“Up to 7,000 police and security forces are expected on the streets to protect EU leaders, while a squadron of F-16 fighters will enforce a no-fly zone over the city centre.”
I’m not sure that Herr Schiller had that sort of thing in mind when he penned his famous ode!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3963701.stm
Meanwhile, all eyes (with brows raised perhaps!) have just swung towards France methinks!
Great stuff! And we didn’t have to fight the English first for it. Well, sorta. 
Congratulations Europe!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo Dein sanfter Flügel weilt…
Just read that bbc link and there is some cool information on the sidebar (including a timeline of the EU) and this text on what the new European Constitution says:
Well, except possibly the French. They really would have to stop calling us “Roast Beefs” before we could seriously contemplate fraternity. It’s really gotten up our noses after so many centuries, what?
Actually the French will definitely be Brüder. If you are still sore about the roast beefs (I seem to remember less flattering epithets, too), it’s all right. You can be Schwestern. 
Not today, thenkyou!
I bet sales of the Left Behind books skyrocket.
I know that my outburst was a bit on the pathetic and naive side. But remember that our grandfathers were once killing each other while we can laugh and make jokes together now. Isn’t that a reason to be glad and also thankful to those who made this possible?
Why?
I am very happy about the constitution. It means that the “union” part in European Union has become a little more real. One of the greatest things that the EU has done is to organize and finance a lot of youth and student exchanges. The generation of European growing up now have a sense and respect for their neighbors that is unprecedented in Europe I think. That gives me hope that the European Union can work in the long run, despite all the problems and issues.
Not at all! Please don’t mind my poking fun at the French, we Brits have been doing that for a very long time and since we won the 100 Years War (I think) it’s all been in good humour. Well, apart from that minor trouble with Boney. But that was ages ago and he was really asking for it (I think).
Where’s Zubivka when you need him, eh?
I’d go easy on the jauchzin’ and frohlockin’ if I were you, Claudine. One of the referendums (the Irish Times tells us that that is the appropriate plural) will be in the UK, and the campaign will have to deal with a written press (including some “quality” papers) that probably comfortably surpass Fox news when it comes to misrepresentation.
Here’s the official website of the Commission press office in London devoted (and boy do you need to be devoted!) to combating the xenophobic poison disseminated by the British press about the EU:
http://www.cec.org.uk/press/myths/index.htm
Things have to be pretty bad when an official agency makes this sort of assertion about the press of its host country:
The European Commission’s Press Office in London monitors the British press’s highly distorted coverage of the European Union. Euromyths are scare stories based on hearsay, rumours and half-truths, many of which have been repeated so often that they have become accepted truths within the public and media consciousness. The A-Z that follows is often ridiculous and sometimes amusing. But the serious question here is about the journalistic integrity of a press that denies the British public the truth about the policies and institutions of the European Union.
Here’s the contemptible way in which the Sun misprepresented the education, training and youth exchange programmes that Bloomers refers to:
http://www.cec.org.uk/press/myths/myth27.htm
%&^*
Why have I not heard of this yet? Oh, yeah, its because the American media sucks and I switched my start page from CNN to google.
Time to start reading, I guess.
According to some Christians’ beliefs, a unified world government is one sign the “end-times” are very near. The Left Behind series is based mainly on Revelations and what the writers believe will happen after the “rapture” of the Church.
I enjoyed reading the series … understanding all of it takes study though.
~Judy
Not at all romantic or naive.
Well done, EU!
History isn’t entirely a bloody mess.
Given all the negative opinions that have been expressed in
the political thread about France,
I thought I would post this very different story.
(Forgive this ‘American’ intrusion; it is to a positive
purpose.) My source is
Stephen Ambrose.
Eisenhower was striving throughout his two presidencies
to find a way to stop the arms race. Toward the end of
his second presidency it appeared that a nuclear test ban treaty
and the beginning of nuclear disarmament were
nearly in the bag. Kruschev signaled he was willing
and a summit was set up in Paris, presided over
by Charles DeGaulle. Immediately before the
summit, however, an American U2 spy plane
was shot down over Russia. These flights had
gone on for years, the Soviets knew all about them.
Ironically one of the chief reasons Eisenhower
ordered them was to get information
to prove to the numerous people in both parties
who were clammering for an accelerated arms
race that the Soviets were NOT the nuclear
threat they were being made out to be.
Kruschev then played a trick. The U2 was made to
self destruct if shot down and the Americans believed
the pilot could not have survived. The Soviets showed
photos of the wreckage of another airplane. Eisenhower
fell for it and lied, insisting that there had been no
U2 flights. The photos were of a weather plane
that had gone off course. The Soviets then gleefully produced the
U2, nearly intact, and the pilot, Gary Powers,
very much alive (he was later exchanged for a
Soviet spy).
At the summit Eisenhower appealed to Kruschev
to put the affair in perspective and to proceed to the
issue of a test ban, which was in both country’s
interest, he said. Kruschev stood up and began
shouting at Eisenhower. DeGaulle, presiding, said:
‘The acoustics in this room are excellent, sir.
There is no need to raise your voice.’
Kruschev and the Soviet delegation then stormed out.
Eisenhower rose to follow them, to appeal once
again to Kruschev. DeGaulle took his arm and
said: ‘I want you to know this. I do not know what
they will now say or do, but whatever it is,
we are with you to the end.’
Oh, Claudine, on the contrary. I found it uplifting…that persons of good will can still feel sanguine, and share that feeling, in defiance of the creeping despair that events in other parts of the world tend to induce-- if one’s focus remains too narrow (as mine often is). The news brightened my day. Cheers to you all.
Allright! Good for you! Congratulations!
All that I know about the French and the Germans I learned from old Benny Hill shows. Could I have been misled?